"Well, that was unexpected." Coatli was smirking, his hands cupped together. Jejune was giggling.

I sat on the floor and let my heart-rate calm down, covering my face with my hands and letting the embarrassment fade. "It's a phobia, alright?" I pushed myself up awkwardly, wincing as my cut arm brushed the wall. "I stumbled into a spiderweb as a child, and got bit, and… yeah, it's dumb, but I can't help it." I took a deep breath. "Sorry, Yse."

"Quite understandable." Her voice, coming from between Coatli's fingers, sounded like rustling pages. "If it helps, I promise not to bite you unless you really need it."

"Hah. Very reassuring." But a smile did help.

"Can you at least look at her?" Coatli asked.

"I think so." I drew in a deep breath. "I was just surprised, is all."

"Alright." He slowly opened his hands.

Yse was… well, a spider. She was the size of a clenched fist, covered in white fur mottled with blue, and had four visible eyes, two large ones flanked by two slightly smaller ones. She looked a lot more… compact than other spiders I'd seen. Maybe a bit like that one I'd reflexively squished while gathering samples for my archive.

As I watched, she bunched her legs up behind her and leaped, zipping from Coatli's palm to a nearby bookshelf.

"So." She hunkered down, rubbing her forelegs over her face and twiddling her feelers. "I will honestly say, I didn't expect a revival. But here I am! Coatli, it's good to see you. And you…" She turned, fixing me with an iridescent blue-green stare. "You must be the new Lord."

"…Yes." She's a friend, not going to bite, not going to jump on me… "I'm Edmon Valli. I have, through a series of coincidences, stumbled across the Heart of Metzli."

"Thank you." She spread her legs and bowed, in a strange approximation of a curtsey. "I think we will have much to discuss. But first… I'm positively famished. You don't happen to have anything to eat, do you? A spare cicada? An ant or three?"

"Uh, no." I felt my phobia subside a bit as we talked. The irrational repulsion was still there, an itch on my palms and a tremor at the back of the brain, but weirdly enough, actually talking to a spider - especially a polite one - was helping me calm down. "I'd make you one, but I don't have much mana left - and I won't be able to replenish it for a while."

"The penalty. Quite. Then, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to go hunt." She waved towards the window.

"Certainly." I nodded. "We'll wait for you. Be careful out there."

"But of course." She bobbed her whole body in something like a nod and leaped again, once to the windowsill and then to a nearby palm, which she promptly scurried up.

"So." Coatli turned to Jejune. "Convinced?"

"Entirely." Jejune sat back down and picked up her cup. "That was very impressive. The core is definitely required, though?"

"Yes, and a mark." Coatli joined her, and waved me over. "It is a failsafe, but not inviolable. Should the core be crushed or stolen… well. In battles between Lords, this can be worked around somewhat, I believe, but in the jungle, you'll need to take care."

"Mmm." She sipped her drink and stared into space. Coatli and I moved back to our chairs and sat down, giving her time to process.

"I think," she said, "that we can reach an agreement. With your support, even just better weapons, we could take higher-quality game, expand our hunting grounds, do something about those damn peng living on the lower peak… yes, this could be very good indeed. But… there's something else I'd like to bring up." She tapped her fingers on the table and turned to me.

"Yes?"

"Excuse me if this is rude, but… you are going to die eventually, right?"

"…I assume so." I shrugged. Cuahuli had been vastly more powerful than me, by all rights, and he'd still been deep-sixed.

"Mmm. Then… I want your assurance that, after you die, the Heart will go to me."

Ah. Long-term planning; my respect for her went up another notch. No wonder she was chief. After all, why bother fighting with me when she could forge a peaceful relationship, and then gather even greater rewards farther down the line? Draconians were known for having lengthy lives, when they didn't rush headfirst into trouble one too many times. Ankh hadn't known about humans, but Jejune was obviously more learned; I didn't know what all was in that book of hers, or what other stories she'd been told, but the fragility of human life was hardly a secret to the monster races.

"I don't think I can promise you that." I frowned. Not that I was entirely opposed to the idea - except for the dying bit - but I wasn't a fan of blind commitment. "I plan to live as long as I can. And even when I do kick the bucket, it's not like I know how inheritance really works. After all, the Heart was lost after Cuahuli."

She frowned. "That—"

"But." I held up a hand. " I'll do my best to see it done. As long as Coatli and Yse don't have a problem with it." I glanced at Coatli, who shrugged. "And even if we do figure out how inheritance would work, I can't promise you anything more than the Heart either - such as Coatli's or Yse's help. I don't even know myself if Yse plans to help me. However, I need something in return as well. If you want a chance at the Heart, I want you to join my group yourself. More as an advisor than a warrior, though." There's no way I'd promise a legacy to someone I'd never spent time getting to know or influence.

"I don't think I can commit to that." She looked down. "My tribe needs me here. But… how about Ankh?"

"Your daughter?" I looked at her, surprised. Coatli had asked for six warriors, which I figured we could work out; even in a small village, there were usually a few people willing to take coin for violence. Offering her own child, though, was something else again.

"She is being groomed to replace me. If you keep a spot open for her, I'll have her join your forces when I feel she's ready. And if she's not interested, then I'll install her here and join you myself."

"Hrm." Well, she was at least going to hold off until she knew I was more trustworthy. I rubbed my forehead, but eventually nodded. "That might work." I really would have preferred she join herself, but should had guessed she wouldn't simply agree. Still, I wanted her knowledge and experience. Getting it directly would have been best, but… well, no good compromise left everyone happy. "Alright, let's work from there."

"Excellent." She reached over and refilled my drink. "Let's talk details."

"Certainly." I picked up the cup, and walked across the room to where a bundle of herbs was drying on the wall. "But first… is this tobacco, by any chance?"

"That… was exhausting." I stepped out of the trees, looking up and down the beach. We had spent several hours hammering out the fine details of our cooperation, making sure that both the village and I understood what our responsibilities and benefits were. It was rewarding, but I was very happy to be done with it. Jejune had even drawn up a simple agreement on a piece of vellum, and we had both signed it. "You alright with taking Jejune up on her offer to sleep here? Heading back to the Sanctuary tonight would be a pain."

"Yeah, I don't mind." Coatli looked up at the sky. "We'd just have to come back anyways, to pick up the squad."

"Yeah." I lowered myself onto the sand, looking out over the sea towards the setting sun. Coatli threw himself onto the beach nearby, going from standing to lounging in nothing flat. I pulled out a pouch of rough-cut tobacco and started packing it into a carved pipe, scooting back to lean against a piece of driftwood. I'd asked Jejune for a good smoke as part of our deal, and she had been happy enough to oblige. "Uh, got a light?" Coatli wordlessly picked up a twig and lit it with a spark from his thumb before passing it to me.

"That stuff will kill you, you know." Yse's papery voice came from my left, and I turned to find her sitting on the sand several meters away.

"My vitality's high enough to take it." I held the twig over the tobacco and sucked the flame down into the pipe-bowl. It lit after a few puffs, and I flicked the taper into the sea. "Besides, I allow myself a few vices. What's the point of life if you can't enjoy anything?"

"True." Yse scuttled a little closer.

"Did you have a good hunt?" I took a long draw on my pipe, and smiled. It wasn't a high-quality smoke by any means, but it was definitely smooth enough to enjoy. "Any problems with your… revival?"

"I'm fine." Yse lifted her feet one-by-one, as if checking them over. "It's been a while since I've been so weak, but I can still catch crickets." She rubbed her forelegs over her face.

"Well, I guess I'd better fill you in on what's going on." I blew a smoke ring and watched it dissipate in the evening breeze.

"Nah, I covered it while you were negotiating," Coatli said. At my raised eyebrow, he tapped his forehead. "Telepathy. You may not have realized it, but Yse doesn't really speak. It's why her voice is so rustle-y."

"…huh." I looked at the spider again, who raised her forelegs in something like a shrug.

"She may not look like much, but Yse is quite the magician." Coatli rolled over and crossed his arms behind his head. "If you want help with your magic, there's no-one better."

"I am curious about that." I frowned. "But first, Yse… will you help me? With my magic, with my domain, with Nepenthe?"

"I'm glad you asked." She leaped, landing on a piece of driftwood and turning to look out to sea. "Too many Lords assume that a mark ensures loyalty, or even gratitude. While it might allow you to order around simple monsters, anyone who forgets that thinking creatures can think is in for trouble."

I nodded silently. I didn't really know what marking did, but… well, even if it did affect someone's mind, I'd still have asked her. Cooperating with your allies was wiser than suppressing them. Besides, she was Coatli's friend.

"But I think I like you. You're young, but you have potential." She turned to look at me. "Besides, there's not a whole lot to do on this island. Count me in— as long as you're willing to do something about that phobia." Her feelers curled inward, and a hint of disgust entered her voice. "You'll need to get over that if we're going to work together."

"…Alright." I nodded, and she inched a little closer to me. "Just don't… jump on me unexpectedly or something."

"Good." She turned back to the sea. "Looks like exciting times ahead! Now, tell me about your magic."

"Alright." I chewed on the stem of my pipe, and thought about how little I knew. "Well, I haven't had it more than a few days—"

I ambled through my explanation, puffing slowly on my pipe and watching the tropical sun dip below the horizon. I explained what I'd discovered about my abilities, and just as night began to fall, I explained what had really been bothering me.

"—So the thing is, I really have no idea how to refill my magic."

"Ahh." Yse had inched closer as we talked, and she was now just past arms-reach. She was a good listener, making appreciative noises and asking insightful questions.

"I've seen potions for refilling it, but I have no idea how those even work, much less what would go into making one."

"Mhm." She nodded. "Well, it's nothing actually that complicated. Stamina refills from resting your muscles, and health refills from resting your body. Magic, then, refills from resting your mind."

"How do you mean?" I tapped the dottle out of my pipe and ground it into the sand.

"Like you're doing now." Yse waved at the beach. "Find a pleasant place, put your worries aside, and simply relax."

"Magic refills by… de-stressing?" I blinked at that.

"Basically." She nodded. "Sleep is good, having a pint is good, sitting down and talking with a friend is good. Whatever helps ground you in reality and put your problems aside. Meditation can be useful."

"Huh." I nodded.

"See? She knows her stuff." Coatli had been quietly building a sand-castle as we talked, and was now cutting delicate crenellations into the towers with a seashell.

"I do, I do." Yse nodded. "And not just magic, either. Coatli said you were planning to travel along the coastline, and mark it piece-by-piece?"

"Yeah." I shrugged. "Is there a better way?"

"There should be!" She did a cheery little dance. "Coatli, you joined the prince after he had claimed the whole island, but I was with him longer than that. One of the things he did, when he was consolidating his power, was travel around and repair marks that he'd found from the previous Lord."

"Oh?" He looked up from his construction. "There's a few marks still active on the southern end of the island."

"Ah, yeah." I nodded. "It's how you found me, right?"

"Yup." He picked up a twig and started engraving delicate curling patterns into the ramparts. "If you can use that… Yse, what's involved in repairing a mark?"

"Well, it's a bit trickier than just marking new territory." She leaped from her perch, landing atop his castle with a spray of sand. "We would need to actually find the mark, and then replace the runes one-by-one. It will also work on inactive marks, as long as they're not missing too many runes. It takes longer, but it would also let you grab more land than if you needed to wait for your magic to recharge each time. I found one yesterday, although I couldn't get close."

"That sounds useful," I mumbled, staring out to sea.

"Yeah." Coatli shot me a glance. "Useful enough that I'd expect you to be a bit more excited."

"Sorry." I rubbed my eyes. "It's just… I'm not really happy with our situation here."

"Well, our options are pretty limited." He shrugged.

"I know, but…" I frowned. "I don't want to just sit and wait. I'm not a fan of playing defensively. I want to do more than just try and scrape through whatever Nepenthe plans to throw at us."

"Didn't you say you weren't ambitious?" He flicked a twig at me, and I caught it out of the air.

"I've never considered myself ambitious, no." I shrugged, and sifted sand through my fingers. "But I've always been fairly aggressive. Just sitting and waiting doesn't feel right to me." Finding a pebble, I flicked it back at him. He let it bounce off a horn, leaving a tiny crater in his castle walls.

"Hmmm." He scooped up Yse and lay back on the sand. "Well, do something about it."

"Yeah, maybe I will." I nodded slowly. "Assuming we can hit our goals of marking the coast, at least, I'd like to head back to Crossroads and do a little digging."

"Sounds good." He yawned, and stood. "Let's go see if Jejune has beds for us somewhere."

"Yeah." I pushed myself up, and tucked my pipe back into its pouch. "We got a lot done, but it's been a long day."

The next day dawned bright and early. Ankh led us to a small clearing, where Jejune shared her breakfast with us and introduced Coatli to the six draconians who had volunteered to work with us. They would help us mark the coastline for the next few days, and as long as cooperation on both sides was satisfactory, I would mark them and they would join us as a squad under his command. Currently, he was thrashing them one-by-one in some sort of draconian friendship hazing ritual. I tuned out the sounds of combat, frustrated yells from the recruits and smug laughter from my friend, and tried to focus on my new ability.

I mumbled "Tome," and a slim gilded volume dropped into my hands. I settled down in the shade and started to flip through it.

The first few pages held the animals and plants I'd marked on my expedition a day or two ago. The Crystal Ant seemed ready to crawl off the page, the witchmoss looked bright and lively, the spider… I flipped past the spider quickly.

"Ahem."

"Oh, Yse?" I looked up, and found her sitting on a branch not far from me. "It's weird that I can tell where you're speaking from, even if you're not physically talking."

"A broadcasted thought affects the brain the same as a spoken voice." She raised a foreleg, as if lecturing. "It even activates the same neurons. But if I use a directed one, I sound like I'm talking directly into your head." Her voice changed, taking on a flatter tone, and losing some of its papery rustle. "Plus, no-one else can hear me." Sure enough, I turned my head as she spoke, and couldn't tell where the sound was coming from.

"How long does that take to learn? It's how Coatli talked with you yesterday, right?" I glanced at my friend, who was enthusiastically tossing someone into the air - right before he leaped up and kicked them back into the dirt.

"If you subvocalize, I can pick it up pretty easily, as long as I'm already talking with you. But actually learning proper telepathy takes quite a while, and you would need to know mental magic, at the very least."

"Ah, well." As useful as being able to communicate silently would be, that sounded like too much hassle.

"Looking at your archive?"

"Yeah." I closed the book and held it up. "I just got this ability yesterday, when I marked you. Speaking of…" I opened it again, and quickly flipped through. "Is this your page?"

"Er…" She looked at the book, then looked to me. "It's a bit hard to read from here. Can I sit on your shoulder?"

"Uh." I closed my eyes for a moment and steeled my resolve, then slowly raised a hand towards her. "Please be gentle."

She delicately hopped off her twig, landing on my sleeve. For a long moment, both of us held perfectly still. Then, moving cautiously, she walked up my arm.

"Close enough!" I said, before she got close enough to brush my neck.

"Fine." She didn't sound completely satisfied, but she did turn to look at the book. "Now, let me see."

I opened to her page again. This one was different from the ones before; instead of a realistic picture, it had a flat illustration, done in shimmering swirls of color. Weirdly enough, it looked less 'real' but even more alive, as if it had somehow captured the essence of 'Yse' without resorting to anything so crude as images. It looked like a strange mural of blue and silver, touched with black and icy white, and although I couldn't make out any distinct shapes or lines, an impression of eyes and legs and silk sprang out at me.

Her name was inscribed on top, with the same sort of gold as the cover. Beneath that was a series of arcane symbols, spiky and curling. At first glance they seemed like nonsense, but the longer I looked, the more sense they made.

"This means… mental magic?" I touched one that seemed to stand out from the rest.

"Yeah, they're my skills." I nearly jumped when she spoke; I'd been so absorbed in the page, I'd half-forgotten she was sitting on my shirt. "You can probably make out a few of them. As your skill with the archive increases, you'll be able to see more."

"Huh." I turned the page, and found another abstract one.

"Oh, you got the dagger." She reached out a leg, as if she wanted to touch the book. "Right, Coatli told me. Growth, he said?"

"Yeah." I looked over the illustration, a jagged tangle of reds and blues and blacks. The inscription read 'Cuahuli's Dagger', and there was only one symbol underneath it, a spreading palm within a sharp-edged diamond. "Not that I really know what that means."

"Of course you do." She giggled quietly. "Growth means whatever growth means - to you."

I frowned. Had Coatli mentioned something like that?

"So, what does it mean to you?"

"Hmm." I furrowed my brows, thinking over the word, trying to pull up associations. "I guess… struggle, somewhat. But also improvement. Like the third day on a job, when things start coming together, and you feel like you're moving past 'getting along' and into 'looking ahead'." A memory sparked. "Or stepping out of the rain into a well-lit room, and realizing you won't be sleeping on the street again anytime soon." I narrowed my eyes, refining the idea further. "Ivy eating weathered stone. Sprouts rising from a felled log. Flowers coming up through cobblestones in spring, little tender green shoots pushing aside tight-fit rock just to reach the sunlight. Something like that?"

"There you go." She waved to the page, and when I looked, the angles seemed deeper, the blues and reds sharper, the blacks crisper. "But don't hold yourself back to just living things. How about… the patter of rain giving way to the crash of a downpour? A breath of wind turning into a gale? A crystal, deep within the earth, turning from a tiny glitter into a gemstone, under each drop of water?" As she spoke, the lines seemed to ooze across the page.

"Interesting." I ran a finger over the paper. It felt oily-slick, like wet paint. "But, uh, what does it do?"

"Not much, as is." She gave an arachnid shrug. "Passive effects only for now, and you'll have to stumble across those. I'd like to improve on that, but without anyone to challenge your dungeon, growth of your aspects is going to be slow. But if you keep nurturing it, you can draw out a token."

"Ah, like Coatli had." I remembered how huge he'd been. "And as for passive effects, I remember the Voice telling me that the penalty to revive you was lessened because of Growth."

"Oh, that'll be useful. Hey, what's this?" she asked, as I turned the page.

"My pistol." I looked at the illustration. It was neither realistic nor abstract, instead looking like a manufacturers diagram, laid out in crisp white lines in a blue background, each piece carefully set apart and labeled with dimensions. "Well, my pistol disassembled." I un-holstered it and held it up for her. "It's a ranged weapon, using chemical reactions and expanding gas. Packs a punch."

"I see." She looked from the gun to the book, rubbing her feelers together thoughtfully. "Very clever. You're skilled with it?"

"Pretty good." I let myself smirk. "Really pretty good."

"That might be just what we need." She turned to look at me, and I tried not to recoil from her beady eyes so close to my face. "When I was out hunting yesterday, I ran across a broken mark. I figured we'd have to wait before claiming it, because it's been overgrown by a bayonet blob. But if you can make the shot… how do you feel about taking a look at it?"

"Sounds like a good opportunity." I stood and snapped the tome shut, willing it to vanish. "Should we take backup?" I jerked a thumb towards Coatli.

"We should be fine?" Yse cocked her head in thought, then nodded. "We won't be going far into the bush."

"Aright." I waved to Jejune, who was watching Coatli's demonstration with a wry grin. When she looked my way, I pointed towards the jungle.

She nodded and pushed Ankh towards us as I headed into the trees.

"How much further?"

I broke the silence after we had been trekking through the jungle for a good five minutes. Yse led the way, leaping from tree to tree and occasionally pausing to grab a passing snack. I watched her crunch through a beetle the size of my thumb as I carefully forded a stream, hopping from stone to stone. Ankh simply leaped into the air, gliding effortlessly across.

"Not far, not far!" Yse dropped the remains of her meal and leaped to Ankh's shoulder, letting the draconian carry her across. "There's a clearing not far ahead; you've probably seen it, Ankh."

"With the prickle-ooze?"

"Yup, that's the one. It's just… ah, here we are."

Ankh pushed a frond aside, and I saw what we were heading for.

Both 'prickle-ooze' and 'bayonet blob' fit it perfectly. In the opening ahead, under the scorching tropical sun, sat one of the pointiest things I'd ever seen. It looked kinda like green steel spun into candyfloss, a huge lump of feathery tendrils that each ended in a razor sharp point. The whole thing swirled out of the ground in a frozen storm of razors, jingling faintly in the breeze.

"Wow." I stopped and stared. "Every time I think I've seen the weirdest plant or animal or rock on this island, it throws something new at me."

"The jungle is hungry." Ankh's voice was quiet. "Like fire. Eat or die."

"And the mark?" I tried to step forward, but Ankh held me back.

"Down there." Yse pointed to the rock underneath, scoured clear of dirt and plants. I could see a few half-gone runes, and part of a dungeon circle. "But best you stay away. Ankh, would you demonstrate?"

The draconian picked up a stone and tossed it at the bayonet blob. It flew through the air for a meter or two, but as soon as it passed some invisible line, the whole thing lunged. I jerked backwards, shocked by the ferocity of the motion; it was like a storm of spears, all leaping towards the missile. The… thing… extended to nearly three times its width, turning into an oblong mass of wires, wrapping the rock tightly in blades. I heard a crunch, and a small shower of gravel fell to the ground.

"Good grief." As I watched, it slowly retracted, curling back up into its resting position. "I'm surprised you've let this thing grow so near your village."

"More trouble than they're worth, once they get this big," Ankh said. "The little ones are nasty, when you can't see them under the leaves. They'll take a foot or an arm, so we burn them out. But this one… we stay away. Not worth it."

"No kidding." I drew my pistol. "Um, Yse, you figured I could shoot it?"

"Yup!" She bounced on Ankh's shoulder, waving excitedly. "They have a core! If you can hit it, we'll be able to remake that mark."

"So, just, uh…" I waved my gun at the thing. "Start shooting?"

"No, hold on a minute, let me whip up some fire. Got to get its attention."

"I'm… not sure I want its attention."

"Smart," she said, "but we'll be fine. Hmm…" She fell silent, and leaped to a nearby rock. As I watched, she waved her legs, tapped her feet, and swirled her feelers in the air. It was sort of adorable, in a creepy way. Moments later, a circle of runes appeared in the air around her, and I felt heat begin to gather on them.

"Get ready, Ed, here we go… Spiderrrrrrrr beam!" With a twitch of her legs, she pointed towards the bayonet blob and unleashed a veritable torrent of fire. I whipped my pistol up as the magic sliced into the clearing, a raging column of yellow flame that played across the prickle-ooze, leaving dripping fire in its wake. It was gone in the blink of an eye, but the heat it left was very real.

Her target reacted immediately, thrashing and whipping its spikes to and fro in a silent frenzy. As it did, I saw the core; a transparent green teardrop in the very center, with a glistening red lump in the middle. As fast as thought, I leveled my pistol on it and fired.

BLAMBLAMBLAM!

Sharpshooting kicked in instantly. At this range, the chance I'd miss was nil. The retorts were shockingly loud in the closeness of the jungle, but the leaves ate the echoes, leaving the sound curiously flat. I saw a spray of green hang in the air for a moment, and then the thing screamed.

KREEEEEEEEE—

"Holy hell!" I threw myself on the ground and covered my ears as spikes exploded out of the clearing, scything down the underbrush and whipping past us. Ankh was standing calmly, letting the projectiles ping off her scales, and Yse had conjured some sort of silken shield for herself. As soon as everything went still, there was a crackle of fire and a whoomph of flame, and I remembered that the thing had been on fire when I shot it.

I pushed myself off the ground, watching in awe as fire encompassed the dead bayonet blob in the blink of an eye. Within moments, it was nothing more than a burned-out hulk, wisps of ash floating down from a wiry skeleton. Pneuma flooded into me like a cool breeze, filling my lungs and seeping out into my body in refreshing streams of power.

"There!" Yse nodded in satisfaction. "As soon as the core is gone, it burns juuuust fine."

"Was that thing actually an ooze?" I brushed myself off as I stared into the clearing.

"Yup! They get crazy if they live long enough." Yse jumped to Ankh's shoulder. "Not many of those little bouncy slimes last very long in the jungle. But if they do… hoo boy. They evolve fast and hard. Should be safe now, let's go."

I held back a moment, keeping my gun up and letting the lady with scale armor go first. Sure, it was dead, but after that, I had a sudden desire to let someone with more experience lead the way when we were in the jungle. Yse leaped down by the dungeon ring, and started clearing off the ash with little sweeps of her legs. I joined her, leaving Ankh to poke around the clearing while we worked.

In a few moments, we had uncovered the whole thing. It looked similar to the rings I'd created when marking the caldera, but a little larger; it was obviously unpowered, and several chunks were missing from it.

"So, here's what you need to do." Yse dabbed a leg in the ash and started drawing wiggly little symbols into the ring. "Oh, uh, I forgot. Is your magic back yet?"

"Yeah." I'd recovered from the worst of the revival penalty after a few hours. A good night's sleep had finished up the rest. "I don't have that much, but I'm full up."

"Good, good. Just put your hand over these symbols as we go, and try and push power into them. It'll probably be a little like marking, but just let the power flow; no need to focus too much on the start or stop, since you're not actually casting a spell."

"Alright." I covered one of the marks with my hand, and tried to follow her instructions. It took a few tries, but after a moment, I raised my hand and found the mark underneath it glowing dimly. I repeated it with the next one, working my way around the ring as Yse moved ahead and drew the runes for me.

"How much more?" After a few minutes, I was sweating, and my magic was nearly gone.

"Nearly there, nearly there!" Yse waved her forelegs and stepped back. "Just do that last one, and— Oh, there we go!"

I touched the last rune, and the circle powered up. The runes brightened in one actinic flash, and then the whole thing gave a ripple and began slowly revolving. It picked up speed for a moment, the glow seeping inwards from the runes until it filled the whole ring, before fading back and settling down again.

"Your dominion has increased from 'tiny' to 'small'. New management options are available."

Neat. I flexed my powers, and a door sprang into existence.

"Now we're talking."

"Edmon?"

I turned to Ankh, who held out something small and red.

I took it and lifted it into the light. The crenellations were rough on my palm.

"Mark."

"Jungle slime variant 'Bayonet blob/prickle-ooze' added to your archive."

Excellent.