After sharing the memories we keep a companionable silence for a few seconds.

“Wow.” Is all she says, and again the only sounds are those from outside the caves, muffled by the magic fog, and the occasional sounds from wolves here or there.

“Have you tried the synchronicity thing with a human yet?” She asks, curiosity shining through the mind bond.

I shake my head and transmit a negative. She collects her thoughts for a moment. “Do you want to try…” She says, voice trailing off . ｢[Embarrassed, nervous]with me?｣

“Well, yeah. Are you familiar with the chinese wuxia genre?”

“Wusha?” The confusion in her voice makes the mind bond redundant.

“I take that as a no. Think of it like a genre of ‘heroic martial arts’. It has two sub-genres, xuanhuan and xianxia (or something like that), which is basically chinese magic kung fu. People there ‘cultivate’ qi to become stronger, then immortal, and then ascend to become a deity. On that note, qi and cultivation seems to be a thing after the Upheaval.

Anyway, in those stories ‘practitioner pairs’ or ‘pair cultivation’ or something like that is often referred to as a method for two people to grow stronger quicker. I’m pretty sure you can similarly use each other to grow with the synchronicity state. At the very least I think you can affect affinities that way, Tåke’s affinity for the Human aspect has been skyrocketing while I experimented with the state.”

I pause for a moment to let it sink in, but also to take a breath, more out of habit than anything else.

“Anyway, in the stories a practitioner pair bond tends to be just that, a bond, with quite a bit of commitment, usually requiring some ritual or at the very least being basically permanent. It’s also described as intimate, though I don’t think any of the stories have described it beyond that, aside from one weird allegory or metaphor or whatever about planting radishes.

The sync state has none of that, though I guess you do make yourself very vulnerable to the other person, as with any sort of intimate thing. A bit more, considering you link both your minds and mana for the duration. I shared how I was able to control Tåke’s body, right?”

She nods.

“While ‘people’ or ‘society’ might come to think of it as some ‘couple-thing’, I don’t really care, and think you can decide what meaning or lack thereof to put into those kinda things. So uhh.”

I scratch the back of my head. “Point is, I’d like to try, and since I don’t put any special meaning into these kinda things my only requirement is that I trust the other person. Well, it’d be really awkward to do it with my parents or something, so I guess you’re perfect.”

I feel both excitement and disappointment from Hilde, mixed with a curiosity I assume is for figuring out something new.

“So are we gonna do it?”

｢[Amused, joking]That’s what she saaaid!｣ I send to her, prompting her to redden again, this time with no obscuring fur. “Sorry. You just seem easy to tease. Oh, and as opposed to you I’m not an exhi- no I shouldn’t say that, but I do think we’d want a bit more privacy than we get here.”

“We could do it in my apartment, but I think my roommates are home…” Whether she means to or not, a reluctance comes through the bond.

“I have no roommates, so we do it at my place?” I signal through the bond that we should move. ｢I want to pick up Tåke.｣

｢[Surprised]Do you keep her in your home?｣

I shrug. ｢Why not? She’s smart enough to understand most of what I say, at least if I keep it simple.｣

Exiting the cave I lift myself into the air. ｢[Curious]Got [Force Magic: Levitation]?｣

She gives a negative. ｢[Curious]How do you get it? [Curious, surprised]Wait, you’re just doing what we did last time I was in your apartment?｣

She responds to my nod with a giddy ｢[Excited, curious]Let me try.｣

As we had done then, she lifts off the ground, and I lift myself a few meters higher up. A light bulb seems to go off as she sees how I do it, and she ascends to my altitude. ｢[Excited]I got it!｣

I meet her smile with my own. ｢[Happy]Want to share experience?｣

She seems a bit confused, but I start sharing all the little tricks I’ve learned for staying in the air, as well as how I used the ability, and some less obvious uses, like a faux-backpack or lifting others. Realising what I mean she shares her admittedly little experience with the sub-ability, but she shares what she knows of [Force Magic] as well.

｢In case you haven’t noticed, your skill level has probably increased a bunch.｣ I rise above the trees and turn in Tåke’s direction. ｢She’s this way.｣

｢Wait!｣

I look down at her. Why is she not- ｢How do you go that high?｣

Oh. I stretch out my mana and pull her up to me, then start moving us towards Tåke. I explain my theory about maximum mana range, specifically that it is usually roughly spherical and grows as you use magic, and as you gain more internal mana. She hasn’t used magic nearly as much as me, and seems to have a range of twenty meters before starting to lose control.

I realise the sharing abilities is rather imperfect, and point out that she can use the trees to push off from. ｢They are a bit more bendy than the ground, though.｣

With me as an example, she manages to take control over her own levitation and soon let out a giggle as she dips up and down and zigzags between the trees.

｢[Amused]If you think this is fun, you should try properly flying in a flight-capable form.｣ I share one of the memories I have of doing aerobatics. ｢In fact, the Wyvern aspect is good for a flight form, and with Leda we have a living example of the aspect.｣

She suddenly drops and I reach out with mana to break her fall, but she saves herself in time. ｢[Worried]Oh yeah, better not lose concentration while levitating. I suppose that’s another benefit of using aerodynamics to fly. Not dropping like a rock if you get distracted.｣

We leave the trees behind and descend towards the lake, stepping on land back under the trees. I wave to and form a mind bond with Tåke, who has both gotten her clothes dirty (as predicted) and wet.

｢[Surprised, confused]Is that Tåke//your wolf companion?｣

I hold my wet companion at an arm's length, scratching her head. ｢Well yeah. [Confused]Didn’t you see my memory?｣

｢Yes, she was a wolf!｣

｢[Confused]Really? [Pondering]I wonder why. Wait, send me a mental image of how Leda looks.｣

She does as instructed, and I find nothing particularly wrong with the mental image, aside from some small stuff.

｢Hmm, I wonder if this is like certain parts of the [System] being subjective//individual? You know how Leda looks because I ‘told’ you, but since I went over the memories with Tåke really quickly I didn’t actively think of her looks, only that it was her.｣

I rub my growing facial bush. Egh, I gotta shave. ｢Yeah, because most of the experimentation with the sync state was in my apartment, so you wouldn’t ask if I keep her at home.｣

｢She looks very happy now, maybe you should let her play with the other wolves more often…｣

｢Well, part of that happiness is seeing me. But you’re right. I have asked her if she wanted to live with them or me, but she doesn’t seem to understand, basically responding with a ‘yes’ or ‘both’.｣

｢[Curious]How do you know? Can you… speak with her?｣

｢The same way we communicate now. In fact, you could throw her a mind bond yourself. But make sure you block most of her thoughts. They are not as… structured as ours, being concepts and desires more than words and sentences.｣

She forms a bond, not with Tåke, but her own companion… Tily? Lily? Something like that? As well. ｢She’s also unable to block thoughts, so you can basically access her entire mind. That sounds cool at first, but it’s pretty simple stuff, and well. I dug too deep. That also mean you should carefully control what you send to her.｣

｢[Surprised, excited, curious]Woah, this is so weird! Awwww, you love me so much, don’t you!｣

｢[Mildly annoyed, amused]Multiple mind bonds at once can be confusing.｣ I state, eliciting a blush.

I give her a few tips on how I find it easiest to communicate with Tåke, like using ideas, images and smells, and that she doesn’t really understand time, so I keep things in the present. I watch the two interact in a new way as I think over my decision to keep Tåke in my apartment.

Because it was my decision. She didn’t object, but so far the closest she has been to objecting has been the few times I have given her something and then tried to take it away from her, however temporarily. She has gotten used to taking off her clothes for showering and sleeping, though it helps that it’s less taking it away and more taking it off her and putting it on the floor or a counter.

Dog people like Hilde, I wonder what they feel about their loved companions becoming smarter and/or humanoid. I should share the Uplifting quest. Actually, I can give her her own quest, for uplifting her own companion.

I wait until Hilde calms down a bit after suddenly being able to truly communicate with her companion before interrupting her. ｢Hilde, are you familiar with the scifi concept of uplifting?｣

｢Where you take cats or dogs or something and make them smarter?｣

｢Well yeah. And make them able to use technology. So like Tåke, but even smarter. Anyway, I have a quest for uplifting the wolves.｣

Quest given: [Uplift the wolves of the eastern forest]

She accepts it almost immediately. ｢[Excited]Is that how Tåke became a wolfkin?｣

｢[Amused]Well, no. That’s a regular aspect shapeshifting.｣

“What!!?” ｢[Curious, excited]How did you shapeshift her?｣

｢I didn’t. She did it on her own. I figured there was aspects for everything, so why not Human? I taught her how to learn aspects (though she refuses to take on anything but Human), and then took her to the city. Turns out, we can’t sense our own aspect because we are perfectly in tune with it.｣

｢[Excited]Can you help Trilli learn it as well?｣

｢I guess. But I suggest using the sync state to make her do it. Learning your own aspect is easy if you have an imperfect version. Try sensing it in Tåke.｣

She turns to Tåke and sends out her mana, staring at her with a concentrated expression, which suddenly turns into a slightly mocking smile of disbelief. ｢[Disbelief]That's- So easy. How could I not notice it until now.｣

“Heh.” ｢[Amused]that’s exactly what I thought as well. Oh, and you can use the Human aspect to do some really interesting things. For one, you can change your body, or even change your sex.｣

She stares at me like I’m some disgusting insect, though the mind bon tells me she’s not entirely serious. ｢[Curious, amused]You pervert! You would do that?｣

I make a suitably offended expression, though I can’t keep the smile off my lips. ｢[Amused]Of course! Who wouldn’t do it at least once? You know, to see how it is? [Serious]In all seriousness, I might’ve had some perverted thoughts. I mean, I did try to see how it is for a girl to, you know.｣

｢[Curious, slightly disgusted]Was it different? Better? Worse?｣

｢It was… Different. I wouldn’t say it was better or worse but, uhh, since the change is so quick and easy I’ll probably do it every now and then to change things up. My main use of the aspect has been to make a puppet I can use to disguise myself. It’s a small girl, so I can also go places I otherwise wouldn’t.｣

｢[Shocked, disgusted]Are you a peeper?｣

｢What? No! It’s smaller so it doesn’t use so much mass. Besides, if I wanted to watch naked people I have fiber internet in the apartment. And heck, I can just make some temporary puppets to ogle. Or touch. But the idea of literally fucking myself… I’m conflicted. It’s basically masturbating, but at the same time not?｣

｢[Disgusted, curious]Eww! Change the topic!｣

｢[Apologetic]Sorry. I tend to get carried away if I talk about something interesting. If I do that, just tell me to shut up. Or lower my volume if I get too loud. As long as you’re not a jerk about it I won't take offense, I know myself well enough.｣

What to change the topic to… I guess I can just backtrack a bit. I pull off my T-shirt as I give myself a couple spider legs which quickly turn into pink and fleshy human arms. ｢You can also do things like this, so if you’ve ever wondered how it’d be to have extra arms, you can find out.｣