With the topic successfully changed, we discuss a bit more about the uses of the Human aspect, with her coming up with a couple ideas I had yet to try. A few minutes later we return to the topic of trying to achieve that synchronicity state, and decide to head to my apartment. She says goodbye to her companion (Trilli, not Lily), though I also decide to leave Tåke here for the day, planning to pick her up after meeting with the potential customer tomorrow.

I make her change out of her dirty and somewhat wet clothes. Her new clothes are a dark gray silken skirt with a shawl/poncho thing to cover her meagre chest. I’d rather have the store-bought clothes intact and clean for use around people. I don’t think the wolves really care about what they wear.

I also transmit to her that I will go home and she will stay, but aside from seeming a bit disappointed, she doesn’t object. Is she just weak-willed? No wait, I sorta-kinda am the pack leader, aren’t I? She simply defers to me as the leader? As companions, having them listen to you is nice, but to become people they should have some individuality. Otherwise they’ll just be some slave-race.

Oh well. Uplifting even one of them seems pretty far off, if anything Leda is closer. I’d say she has the intelligence, and she’s quickly learning, so she could very well become the first non-human person. Well, she’s not being uplifted as much as ‘enlightened’ or given knowledge. And taught a form which works better in human society.

We discuss such things on the way to my apartment, though most of the time is spent in relative silence, with me at least finding the presence of another person’s mind tiring over time. I notice her mind stirring as we touch down outside the apartment building.

“That was tiring…” She says, referring to the magic for the levitation.

“Really? Do you have [Meditation] equipped? ‘Cus…” I start, finishing the sentence with thoughts; the knowledge of the ability’s effects.

“Oh.”

I give her a moment to ‘catch her breath’ so to speak, then lead her up into my apartment. I sense a sort of subdued, but surprised amazement as we enter the door. I turn to her, wondering what she reacted to, and intentionally making that thought clear for her to read. Why limit communication to words when you can get by without them?

“Is your entire apartment enchanted?”

“No. Well, sorta? I’ve been trying out some things…”

Giving her a quick look into my current project doesn’t take long, but a few questions from her trigger a discussion with a lot of helpful suggestions from her, where I also end up showing her more or less every single item I’ve made, from the spear-staff to some paper with a spell diagram I had forgotten I’ve even made, and the now spatially enchanted IKEA furniture.

In fact, time flies so fast I end up making the two of us dinner. It’s nothing fancy, and doesn’t take too long, but as I make it we talk about trying to get that synchronisation state. I’m not entirely sure how it even works, other than what it is, but when we sit down for dinner we have a plan to try as soon as I’ve cleaned up after the meal.

The meal itself and the consequent cleaning is mostly spent in a nervous silence. While I don’t care much about what society would think about something like this, that doesn’t change that I’m about to do something very intimate with someone I barely know. The fact that I haven’t exactly had much contact with the opposite sex also doesn’t help.

We each take a comfortable sitting position on the floor, facing each other. After making sure both the mind bond and mana link are working, we close our eyes with a wordless agreement. We both turn inwards, focusing on our breathing, and synchronise it by ear. With the easy part done, we open up, letting the other feel our breathing. With a signal we previously agreed upon, we focus on the beating of our hearts, and with another signal, share it like the breathing.

After a while, my heart is hammering more and more, and I close off, opening my eyes. ｢[Disappointed, excited]That didn’t work as we’d hoped…｣

｢[Disappointed, excited]It worked well with the breathing.｣

｢Your heart was going crazy, and I think we just made a feedback loop.｣ I let out a breath. ｢[Apologetic]Well, I’m not blaming you. You seemed pretty embarrassed. Enough for me to notice even without the bond.｣

My comment only makes her more embarrassed, flushing from pink to red. I just smile for a little while.

｢I think-｣ “Maybe-” She begins, interrupting my thought, only to stop herself.

I wave my hand to have her continue, but she fidgets a little and looks away. “May- no. Nevermind.”

I simply sit there to let her sort out what to say or gather up her courage, but it seems to just unnerve her. With her hands seemingly moving subconsciously she looks at me for a moment with lowered head, only to look away.

I guess I’ll speak first then. ｢I think-｣ “Uh, I think it would work better if we were a bit… uh, more comfortable with each other. Though in your case…”

Should I…? Having the knowledge gives me a sort of upper hand in our relationship. Bleh, why does that word have so strong connotations to it being romantic/sexual? I guess it’s sorta rude to pretend like I don’t know, but on the other hand it’s the kind of thing I am fine talking about but that might make others uncomfortable. Or think I’m creepy, which would be sad…

“Well, you- Ehm, I’m not sure I should even talk about it, but I feel like it’s kinda rude to just ignore it. So, uhh, just stop me. I’m fine being honest and open about these kinda things but I know many, maybe most, people are not.”

I take a deep breath. “You probably realised I heard more of your thoughts than you intended to.” I pause to see her reaction, but I think her face can’t get any redder.

“I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have thought those things about you!”

“You’re sorry?” I say confused. “Why are you sorry? I should have warned you earlier, and I was the one who saw you mind, uh, ‘naked’ so to speak.”

“You’re okay with that? That I thought of you like that?”

“Uhh, I didn’t hear that much. You were horny, which is, uhh, understandable, if your own fault. You wondered about sex in the synch state, and well, I’ve been there, done that. Thinking about it, as a ‘computer nerd’ I have no experience on that front.”

I was wrong, she could turn redder. But from her forward leaning posture (is pushing her breasts like that intentional?) and what I can gather from her mind, she’s interested in what I’m saying in a good way.

“And finally, you wanted to… I think you used ‘hook up’ with me. That’s just flattering. Though, it might also be a result of the wolfkin hormones…”

“Uhm, about that. You can- I’m not-” She draws a sharp breath. “Please pretend it didn’t happen! It was- I think it was the hormones. Just, forget what I said, eh, thought!”

“I can’t simply forget, wll, might be able to with mind magic but I’d rather not experiment with something like that. But uhm, I’ll pretend, if that’s what you want.”

She obscures her face with a hand, partially turning away and looks to the ground. “Yeah…”

The silence quickly becomes awkward. “Uhm, err, so- do we try again?”

She pulls out her phone to check something . “Uhh, it’s a bit late, so I think I should go.”

“Oh yeah, it is kinda late. You should have some idea of how to do it, so you can try it with, uuuh, with ehm… with your companion.”

She puts on her shoes.”I will, thank you for the help. And the meal. See ya!”

“See ya.”

...and she’s gone. I feel like there was something I wanted to ask or tell her, but I can’t remember what. I got sidetracked, then sidetracked again… Oh well, I’ll remember it later if it was important. For now, I guess I should check up on my Patreon and website. I guess I’ll make a poll for patrons to find out what kinda videos they’d like.

The next morning, I find myself standing outside the gates to a pretty damn large property. I’m ten minutes ahead of the scheduled time, but I guess they won’t mind, and hit the doorbell. Can you call it that if it is on the gates to the path to the actual door? The little screen lights up and a young girl/woman pops up.

“Oh, hello. What do you want?”

“Uh, I am supposed to meet with Richard Andersen, he gave me this address.”

“Oh, you’re the wolfman? You don’t look like it.”

“Well, I-” Before I get any further she disappears off the screen.

…

“-look like it.” I hear her speak, returning from who knows where, but an older man takes the screen. “Hello, you must be Lars?”

I nod, assuming he can see me. “Good, I’ll let you in.”

The small door next to the car-sized gate opens, and I walk through. I guess having a long way to your door is a sign of being rich, though I bet there’s a couple fancy cars in those garages. The man opens the door and welcomes me in, and I find myself looked at by the girl and a boy. They’re both quite a bit younger than me. At least, I think so.

The man leads me away from the entrance while the kids, presumably his (and thus the ones I will be tutoring), whisper to each other. He takes me to a smallish room furnished like a home office that could be used for slightly more formal meetings. I shake the hand he holds out, then take a seat as he gestures me to.

After a more formal introduction, he asks me what kind of magic I can teach. I quickly go over the abilities I’ve learned, noting that I essentially specialise in shapechanging via [Aspect Magic] and magic derived from direct mana control.

I mention there are some abilities I am reluctant about teaching, at least to minors, and he tells me that the boy is fifteen and the girl is seventeen. We come to the agreement that I can judge whether or not they should learn an ability, and defer to him if I am uncertain.

With that out of the way, he nods and closes his eyes for a moment before reopening them. “I would like you to tutor them for three days before deciding whether or not to keep using your services. How much would that cost?”

“Three days? You mean a couple hours each day? Or…?”

He shakes his head. “Full time. From eleven to five, with the ability to contact you the rest of the day, and I expect you to give them tasks to do while you are away.”

“Oh. I had planned tutoring to be in hour or two-hour session, and have made prices according to that.”

Hmm, this is essentially six continuous hours, plus being on alert for the rest of the day… I suppose I should price it as three two-hour sessions per day, per person? That seems like a reasonable price per person, and it’s far more than I could expect from a regular job, given my education. Well, it’s more of a guideline and I’m open to haggling.

I tell him the price, and to my surprise he accepts it immediately. “When can you start?”

“Uhh, right now I guess? At the very least I’d want to know what level they’re at and what they want to learn, so I can do some planning.”

“You can use the lounge for that, I’ll call them.”

He stands up, and assuming this is not what he refers to, I stand up as well. I follow him, but don’t go far before I realise something: I should probably give him the options of how to pay, since they are a bit unconventional, and preparing another payment method will take time. I tell him the potential problem and the methods I’ve prepared, and he says either is fine.

Reaching what is most definitely a lounge, he tells me to sit while he gets ‘the kids’. The house might be big, but it’s not that big, and shortly afterwards they sit down opposite to me, clearly excited.