Shiny cursed as her fingers slipped and the knot she was trying to tie came undone. She’d spent years being yelled at, slapped around, told she was bad at damn near everything. As far as work in the tribe went she’d been shuffled from working under the cooks to trying to make shoes with the wrinkle-faced old lizard who spent all day twisting together bits of grass for sandal straps. And she’d been hit with ladles, and sandals, and once, a whole blob of wobbly snailfat. The problem was nobody was yelling, nobody was throwing anything, and-

She was still bad at all those things.

Her clothes were falling apart, and she wasn’t going to go naked. Not with the weird ol’ ghost whispering around seeing everything. Nevermind the bits of her tunic that’d gotten cut to shreds, the whole thing more or less fell off without a belt.

Gritting her teeth, she picked up the bits of grass she’d dried, and began trying to twist them into a proper rope.

In the mud the baldie-dog snorted in amusement, blowing bubbles in the muddy wallow where it sat sunk down to its eyes in water. She knew he was a hippo. She’d been told he was a hippo. His big, wet-lookin’ black eyes said he knew he was a hippo too. Baldie dog. She thought, and the hippo snorted again like it could hear her thinking.

“An so what? I’m allowed t’think, and if you’re reading my thoughts, well that’s like stealing and you don’t catch thieves complaining about what they steal. Anyways you don’t have hands so I’m doin’ loooads better than you would.” She sighed, and kicked back, itching herself. The sun was high and the oasis was full of little scraping sounds as small animals chased each other about and foraged for fruit.

It had changed so much.

Tall, thick-trunked trees lifted from the earth. They had ugly roots that squiggled across the ground like snakes, and ropey, twisted bellies that expanded out into bright green crowns. Shiny wasn’t sure she trusted ‘em. Trees were supposed to be tall and starved little fellows you could kick over. These ones looked like they could beat her in a fight, and the trunks were thick with little barbs.

Bells hung between the trunks, long strings of stone chimes that the Oasis kept saying were for detecting magic. They filled the air with a dusty clack, clack, clack when the wind blew and the brilliant surface of the water started to ripple. It was beautiful alright. The dumb spirit had gone and covered the ground in weird orange-white flowers with only one petal, so they went corkscrewing around in the wind, then spun round the other way whenever it stopped. Like watching one-winged butterflies try to dance.

“Y’ever get bored of lyin’ around looking pretty, baldie-dog? I mean, I’m the only one looking pretty, but we’re both-”

There was a ripple in the air and a sudden feeling. It was hard to describe. Like the air was heavy with its own thoughts, and you were all, like, stuck inside, feeling those thoughts swim around you. Usually people lived in places. Suddenly, this place was living in her.

The spirit had returned.

---

Shine-Catch was homesick. It was obvious, and she was trying to hide it, which meant it was doubly obvious. She’d spend all day either lying in the shade listing off things that annoyed her, or getting increasingly furious at simple tasks.

I thought she’d succeed at least twice as often if she didn’t get frustrated so quickly.

What she needed was someone to talk to. And despite my best efforts to be friendly, I didn’t seem to be that person. In fact I seemed to aggravate her more than anything, so I contented myself with unseen kindnesses. Filling the oasis in with little thorny vines that grew fragrant waxy buds that tasted of honey. With rattling seedpods that fell from the branches, each dry brown husk nested with dozens of small greenish seeds that I lent a savory, earthen flavor that hinted at sweetness.

For Ramses, well- I grew healing fruits and made the shore bright with flowers. I’d even made a few monochrome birds who spent their days on his back, picking away flies.

Ramses had not recovered. He lay berthed in mud, his mind sweating with pain from his wounds. Despite my best effort there was no erasing injuries infused with Arak’s hateful fire. Huge portions of his belly were wracked by raised scar tissue that still looked angry and inflamed. The injuries extended up. He could barely walk, and I knew he wouldn’t fight again.

He yawned, feeling my gaze and feigning comfort for my benefit. Some warriors only get one fight. Its which fight they choose that matters.

I felt the pain shift in his belly.

As for the rest, my crow had retreated into the ruins that loomed over the oasis, while my hawk spent long days afield displaying his golden plumage for the benefit of various girl-hawks. I suppose he was spreading my design via his lineage.

The one surviving lemur had left. His injuries had been in my power to fix, but the shame in his mind, the feeling of its cohorts dying - that had stayed. He bowed to me, and departed for the canyon where it had lost the first of its siblings.

The Locus.

I had leveled. Three time and nearly a fourth. My domain had expanded massively, and I now brushed the edges of the desert’s center, connecting to savannah on one side and the toxic salt-flats on the other. With my scouting trips I was building a vague impression that I’d conquered a third of the total mass.

The sands were mostly empty of large life, but here and there the tiniest pocket of moisture would create a feeding frenzy. Rock pools hidden in low caves were guarded by shaggy tarantulas with scythe-bladed forelimbs. Enormous, flat-bellied snakes lurked in the sands at the edges, using their tongues to imitate smaller prey-serpents and snapping up the birds that dove for the bait.

I finally had a bounty of designs to improve upon, and time to do it in. In all I’d examined seven locations of interest, the first being small edge of salt-marsh I had pulled into my domain. Next, the chalky cliffside riddled with little caves where the goblin tribe made their homes, set along an ancient creekbed that cut through the sands like a natural road. Two of the locations were small ponds in an inexplicable valley I suspected had been carved out by some massive impact, the steep walls isolating the area within as a closed ecosystem. The fifth was an area of half-intact ruins, their shape providing buttresses to the sand dunes’ migration and an old well-shaft giving burrowing animals a chance to drink.

The last two locations had been designed as Loci, places where lines of Mana deep beneath the earth converged and formed a rich node. Redmouth Canyon, where my lemur had gone, and a place I named the Ossuary. Huge bones made of deep-green glass towered up into the sky, the sun pouring through their material to create streaks of color on the sand below. Within, a dense Mana circulated, and a series of natural springs made it the richest land beyond my own.

What drew my interest was how the creatures there had adapted to the abundance of magic. The corpse-puppeteer maggots I’d discovered were actually the larval stage of a creature found here, a predatory moth, but they couldn’t mature without a certain density of Mana.

Exploring the Locii was a prime goal.

For now, though…

“Shine-Catch.” I spoke through the bells, ringing out each word by painstakingly combining different tones into a single syllable. “I need you to get ready. There’s a caravan coming on the western edge.”

And then to confirm a suspicion, I asked. “Did people ever come here before?”

“Here? Nahhh. What’s here?” She scoffed.

I was.

O’ Protector of the Ashen Earth,

Your Soul Overflows. You Have Leveled!

You have unlocked Naming, allowing your words to resonate throught the Pale Beyond. Bequeathing your guardians with a Name allows their soul to grow, providing a meaning for their existence and a strength to seek that purpose. You may grant a total number of Names equal to your Arcana.

You may gain one Schema or one minor boon.

O’ Lord of Lightning and Sky,

Your Soul Overflows. You Have Leveled!

You have unlocked Binding, the power to hold a given word as eternal contract. When you absorb a living creature's blood, you enter into a battle of wills, setting the terms of a Binding which you must both obey. Attunements may be shared via Binding. You may create a number of contracts equal to your Logos.

You may gain one Schema or one minor boon.

O' Most Heavenly One Among All Rocks,

Your Soul Overflows. You Have Leveled!

You have unlocked Ascension, the power to evolve a creature's inner flame. When a creature has absorbed enough Life-Attuned Mana you may condense a new Mana-flame for them, choosing a new form. The potential forms are limited by your Anima.

You may gain one Schema or one minor boon.