Late in the afternoon, with my mind a little woozy from the tomes I had read, I emerged from the underground library. For a moment, I just stood there, letting the wind flow around me and watching the shadows around me, cast by the sun, slowly vanishing behind the mountain-ridges. It would take a few more hours before the sun would truly set, creating a calming twilight.

Part of me had desired to stay in the library longer but after reading three of the dwarven tomes, Lenore and Gelorin had teamed up and convinced me that my mind was no longer able to take anything in, making the reading mostly pointless. My original plan to simply record what I was looking at and using the recording later had a few problems. The biggest, obviously, that the dwarven language was a mystery to me, only comprehensive thanks to Lenore and our bond. That particular problem was mostly solvable by simply dictating notes to the recording I was creating, but to do that, I needed to read and at least partially understand. Another problem was that I was getting a feel for the magic, for the theory and even the runes to a point, thanks to my mystic-title and my Runic Understanding-Special Ability. Those advantages wouldn’t carry over to a recording, which was why I had made the decision to try understanding as much as possible now and not rely on the recording.

Looking around, I gave Lenore a soft, mental push, asking her if we could soar. I felt wordless acceptance and delight flowing back through the link and her form appeared on my shoulder, with her wings spread out behind my head. Trying to remember how I had shifted myself into the Hallow on the day before, I reached out with my mind, looking for the trace of magic I had left within my Hallow. Once I was looking for it, I wondered just how I had missed it the whole time, the clear, magical connection flowing from Lenore to me and back, a true bond of equals. Maybe it was only due to the newly established parity, or my new understanding, but I was certain that I’d be able to pinpoint where Lenore was, no matter how far we were apart.

Before I could follow that idea and the interesting implications it held further, I pushed myself into the connection, pulling my Avatar with me. Lenore had to flap for a moment when her perch vanished but then we were off, gliding through the warm air. My mind needed a few moments to attune to the state of being in Lenore’s Hallow, so I could feel the wind on her feathers.

It felt glorious, a gentle, drifting breeze pushing up the valley, allowing us to soar higher without needing to work for it. We just drifted lazily with the breeze, wings spread wide, slowly gaining altitude. Below us, the dwarven city stretched up the mountain, the daylight letting me see just how uniform the dwarven buildings actually were. From above, it was as if someone had just put down blocks, each apparently the same size, each the same distance apart. And each the same, boring block of dark rock.

“Let’s go higher.” I asked Lenore, letting myself experience her feelings. It was simply incredible, the wind flowing through her feathers, pushing us higher. I also felt her thoughts and instincts, how she felt the airflow and used it, in combination with a small bit of Air-Magic, to read it, finding streams of rising air to carry us higher. Soon, we could look down on the world through her eyes, looking into other valley and down on the mountains.

“We shouldn’t go higher here.” Lenore suddenly thought, a distinct sending, with some context behind it. If we went higher, we might catch the attention of powerful beings that ruled the skies, some of them forces of nature, others powerful beasts. We were simply lacking the power to take on such a being, so getting their attention would be bad. Even flying closer to the mountains had some risks, as there might be flying enemies, similar to the wind-raptors we had hunted near Yaksha.

“Don’t you want to see your new powers? You just crossed the second divide, don’t you want to see just how powerful you are now?” I asked, egging her on a little. In confrontations, she was mostly cautious, sometimes even cowardly, which was a stark contrast to the willingness she displayed when it came to magical experimentation. Receiving my thoughts caused her to steel herself, determined that she would find out. Flapping her wings, she shifted our course, letting the winds take us towards one of the higher mountains, her eyes scanning the skies around us and the slopes below us, making sure that we were the hunters, not the prey.

We didn’t have to look for long and a dark shape was leaving a nearby cliff-side, dropping for a moment before quickly gaining altitude. Judging size was difficult at the distance, at least for me, but I could get information from Lenore and quickly learned that the predator coming for us was quite a bit bigger than she was, with some eight meters wingspan. I felt myself get excited, even after crossing the second divide, Lenore hadn’t increased in size, still just a bit over a meter in wing-spawn and maybe two kilograms in weight. But I also knew that size didn’t matter, at least not if one of the parties had powerful magic. Hopefully, it was only one party.

I could feel her mind gather power as the predator, some sort of raptor, according to her mind, was quickly getting closer, trying to rise up just behind us, before doubling back and striking from above and behind. It was such a simple tactic that I wondered if it would work on a normal beast. But before I could wonder further, I felt Lenore steel herself further and pull in her wings, diving down like a raptor herself, aiming for the other bird. I could feel her magic push us faster, her winds cutting through the gale. Within moments, we reached the other bird and I felt her pull at my own power, channelling it into her talons. Curious what would happen, I gave my power with full measure, letting it surge through our bond.

We struck the much larger bird, which seemed to be incredibly confused for the short moment, and Lenore’s talons sunk in deeply, my magic crashing into our prey in a way I hadn’t quite experienced before. There was no forming of the Astral Power into magical effects, just a brutal, unsophisticated onslaught of Ice-Type Astral Power, surging directly into the predator. Lenore used a moment to use Observe on it, learning that it was a level fifty-five Black Raptor, whatever that meant. Momentum carried us away from our prey and forced Lenore to beat her wings again returning to a glide. A quick, banking turn allowed us to keep an eye on our prey, curious what our attack had accomplished.

For a second, it looked as if the raptor would be able to continue flying but then it started plummeting and we noticed that there were ice-crystals forming between its feathers. Lenore kept an eye on it until it hit the mountainside, some hundred meters below us, where it shattered on impact. I had a certain idea what kind of effect such an impact should have had and what I saw didn’t match it in the slightest. It looked more like a solid object, shattering into sharp pieces instead of a fleshy meat-bag, filled with blood and other liquids, bursting from the impact.

It took me a moment to realise what had happened and a check on my Astral Power helped to make the story obvious. We had pumped a little over thousand points of Astral Power, about twenty percent of my maximum, into the Raptor, turning it into a flying popsicle from the inside. At a guess, I would have said that a beast of the Raptor’s level had a thousand Astral Power, total, somewhere in the range around seven, maybe eight-hundred was more likely.

“Interesting. Crude and ineffective, but interesting.” Lenore observed, before flapping her wings again, flying towards the spot the raptor had launched from.

“Yeah, you can channel Ice-Type Astral Power quite well, at least through your talons.” I observed, realising that her learning of Ice-Magic might have more implications than I had considered before. Would I be able to channel more Ice-Magic through her now, without harming or exhausting her? It certainly was worth a try.

Before I could suggest to try what might happen if I tried to channel spells through her from the safety of her Hallow, she started to quickly flap her wings, bringing herself to a gentle landing in the cliff-side nest. There were a few bones and broken egg-shells lying around but sadly nothing of value or interest. I could feel Lenore’s disappointment, she had been hoping for loot, for shiny things to carry off. Alas, it was not to be and so, with a disappointed screech, she hopped off again, gliding away from the cliff, back down, towards the dwarven town.