Reaching out with my hand, I let the chilly air created by Lenore wash over it. It was Ice-Magic, alright, and far from powerful enough to actually hurt me. Not that I had expected it to, I was rather resistant against it after all. But there was something else mixed in, hidden behind the cold, channelled with the magic just like my magic always contained a trace of Ice-Magic, unless I deliberately prevented it. It was Death-Magic, transmitted by the cold, giving it some extra bite.

“Interesting. We’ll have to see what you can do with that, once you are better trained.” I said, considering the various, interesting ways we might be able to work together with her new ability.

“Is it only the ability or did you gain an affinity as well?” I asked.

“Only the ability, I’ll have to train it up for a while, until it gets to a useful stage.” she answered, causing me to nod in understanding.

“But that brings me to something else. Originally, I offered you my help and companionship for a year and a day. I would like to change that and stay with you until you leave this plane.” she said, a statement making me incredibly happy. It had been a small bit of worry, lodged into the back of my mind, that once our original contract was up, Lenore might leave, taking Ylva with her. It seemed that she had made a decision on that, that she wanted to stay with me. I had felt that she was content with me and incredibly pleased at the progress both of us had made with our respective magic, something that was now proven.

“You are very welcome to stay with me, until I’ll leave this world.” I promised, part of me hoping that I might even meet her again in the full release. It was a thought I wrestled with quite a bit, the connections I was forming with these beings, who seemed so very real to me, what would happen with them once the beta ended? As fast as the thought came, bringing with it a sharp pain at the idea of separating from Sigmir, I pushed it away, focusing on something, anything different. I would bomb that bridge once I came to it. Somehow.

“Would you mind if I hop into my Hallow?” Lenore asked, the thought filled with exhaustion, driving home the fact that she had pushed herself to her absolute limit when she had crossed the second Divide, absorbing as much power as possible from the swamp. It made me wonder if there was a way to empower myself, once the time came for me to cross the second Divide, something I wasn’t yet sure how to do.

“No, I don’t.” I answered, offering her my arm to climb. She happily hopped over, quickly scrambling upwards until she sat on my shoulder, pressing her head against my temple. The familiar sensation of her, entering her Hallow began, only to be replaced by a sudden, brutal pain. It felt as if someone was trying to drive an ice-pick into my skull, piercing and sharp, causing me to scream in pain.

As sudden as the pain came, it faded away, leaving only a throbbing remnant imprinted into my mind and a disturbed Sigmir, frantically trying to get up, orient herself and deal with whatever had made me scream.

Gasping with pain, I managed to get out that I was alright, even if I wasn’t so sure of that. At the same time, as the pain faded away, I felt a strange tingling sensation, above my eyes, in the back of my neck, in my armpits and in my crotch. Before I could investigate the sensation, a blue screen popped open, catching my attention.

Extraordinary Event A spirit, more powerful than you, sought shelter within your Avatar. It’s essence was too much for your Avatar to contain, causing your Avatar to change in reflection of that. The changes are permanent and can only be reversed with extraordinarily powerful magic. You gained +1 Agility and -1 Charisma.

Special Ability gainedYou gained the Special Ability : Avian GraceFor having Agility of 20 or higher, you gained the skill Avian Grace. Those light enough to take to the sky are not durable enough to withstand the impacts of earthbound combat. Instead, they use their agile grace to avoid those strikes entirely. You emulate some of said grace, allowing you to dodge just a little faster.

“Love?” Sigmir asked, looking both confused, worried but also just a tiny bit amused.

“Yes, I’m alright.” I tried to reassure her, only to be confused on my own, when she pointed to my eyebrows, now more than a bit amused.

I was not quite sure what was going on, until I realised that the change to my Avatar might have been more than just the small change in attributes and included a physical component. With but a thought, I instantly projected a set of three Ice-Runes, pushing my will into the magic to create a simple, reflective sheet of ice, allowing me to use it as a mirror. What I saw made me raise an eyebrow, or it would have, if I still had eyebrows. There was still something there, looking almost like eyebrows but not quite, they had been replaced by feathers, small, obviously raven-black, feathers. They followed the contour of my brow but stuck off a little near the temple, producing a slightly weird effect, especially if I raised one or both eyebrows.

Raising my hand to feel them confirmed that, yes, they were feathers and unless I wanted to pluck them, I was stuck with them. At least, they were smooth and quite pleasant to feel.

Remembering the strange, tingling sensation I had felt earlier, I took a good look at my neck and, indeed, the small hairs in the back of my neck, stretching forward across my neck and shoulders, almost to my clavicle, was more plumage. Further investigation, carried out then and there, made it clear that yes, the other two areas that had felt strange earlier were now feathered as well, covered in short, downy feathers.

Even the hair on my head was not fully spared the effect, but it was a lot more subdued there. Only a few, black feathers, stretching from the back of my skull, were long and large enough to be visible between my hairs.

“Don’t worry, love, it looks good on you.” Sigmir assured me, noticing that I was a little distressed by the sudden change to my Avatar. For a moment, I was conflicted before pushing it away from me, focusing on the fact that the only person I really cared about was fine with it. I also felt Lenore, who was to equal parts apologetic and amused, starting to relax in her Hallow. She was of the opinion that it looked good on me, but even if it did not, there was simply nothing to be done. It was an unforeseen occurrence, that had to be accepted.

Looking over to Adra and Rai, who had managed to get themselves into something similar to fighting stances, despite their exhaustion, I called out that everything was alright, just an unforeseen event that had me spooked. The two of them weren’t happy about getting jostled into action by sudden screaming but settled back down, letting the spring-sun shine down on them, burning the feeling of cold, camp mist out of their bodies and bones.

“So, what happened?” Sigmir asked, her earlier amusement coming back, as she wrapped me into a hug, taking the position I had sat on earlier, only now with me on her lap. I took a few minutes to explain what had happened and realised that the change to my Avatar really didn’t matter. I wasn’t in the habit of looking into the mirror all that much anyway, so as long as Sigmir was fine with my feathered look, I really didn’t need to care.

“Lenore crossed over, huh? That’s quite impressive.” she said, but from her tone, I was quite sure that there was something more to it and I wasn’t disappointed.

“She beat me to it. I think I saw what path to take forward, during the battle. My father focused on the importance of control. But, you know, when that thing earlier declared that you’d take the place of his bride, there was no control there. I simply let go, let go of reason, of fear, of anything that would stop me from defending you. I think that is the path I want to take forward. I’ll have to meditate on it, but I feel like it’s the way to go.” she explained, sounding introspective.

Hearing the conviction in her voice, made me want to reward her, the knowledge how far she would go for me making me tingle in a very different way, compared to the earlier tingle of growing feathers. But I’d have to wait until later to deal with that, for now, I only gave her a kiss, filled with all those delicious things I wanted to do with her later.

We still had things to do, before we headed out, towards the dwarves. If possible, I wanted to get to them today, hopefully before they left their camp to travel back to their hold.