“Standig, I had a thought.”

“That’s strange,” he teased.

Huo Lohse gave him a dirty look before continuing. “I was thinking that we ought to show someone, just one person, this courtyard so the outside world could find us in case of an emergency.”

“You mean Philige.”

“Well, he’s an obvious choice, but we could probably fill in Ernkit or Begrent or even Shanti pretty easily too. We wouldn’t even need to tell them that we are primordials. You could just ask them to come let us know if something major happens.”

“Yeah, but Philige wouldn’t ask any hard questions.”

“All I’m proposing is that we choose someone to be a liaison for us so that people can find us if we are needed. I thought you should be the person to choose who that liaison will be,” Lolo shrugged.

“It’s a sensible proposal. Have you told Fortus about it yet?”

“I wanted to tell you first. This is your special place, Standig. I think you should have control over who knows about it.”

Touched by her thoughtfulness, Standig couldn’t help but smile. “I think Philige would be a good choice for a liaison. He already knows what we are doing here, and as the Bear Tribe leader, he would also be the first to know of any sort of trouble that we might be needed for.”

After consulting with the rest of the team over lunch, Standig went to find Philige while the rest of the team prepared for their afternoon combat training. When Standig found him, Philige was preparing for his own military training for the day.

“Standig! What are you doing here?” Philige asked, surprised to see him.

“I’m looking for you.”

“Anything wrong?”

“No. But I have something to show you.”

“I was getting ready to train.”

“Why don’t you come train with me and the team today?”

“Like, right now?!”

Standig grinned. “Right now.”

“Does that mean you’re going to show me where you guys have been training all this time?”

“That’s what it means.”

Philige collected his equipment with a smile. “Let’s go!”

It was an armor training day. As the weather was getting colder, it was getting less uncomfortable to wear their armor, but it still wasn’t their favorite day.

Philige exited the tunnel to find two very intense sparring matches playing out in front of him. Ulana and Lolo were going head-to-head directly in front of him. Even with her scalemail on, Ulana’s aerial maneuvers had impressive height, and while Lolo was fully decked out in her own armor, she was still amazingly agile and quick on her feet. Jadu was sparring with Fortus in another corner of the courtyard. Both of the boys fought with remarkable power and skill. Jadu had come a long way to close the skill gap between himself and the rest of the team in the months that they’d been training, so while Fortus fought with greater force, Jadu fought with greater composure.

There was a metallic thump as Ulana landed one of her aerials successfully, and Lolo was knocked to the ground. Lolo used her momentum from the fall to roll out of harm's way until she could get back on her feet again.

“Nice one, Ulana!” Lolo grinned as she got up just in time to block another attack.

“You liked that?”

“That was a new one,” Lolo observed, their swords crossing each other impossibly quickly. “You’ll have to show me how you did that later.”

“That’s assuming I can remember how I did that later,” Ulana laughed. “This last week or so, I’ve been making up aerials on the fly.”

“What’s changed?”

“I think I’m connecting with my phoenix spirit better.”

Lolo got in an attack that took Ulana by surprise, and Ulana had to spin out of the way to dodge it.

“You’re getting better too, Lolo,” she grinned. “Even with all of our training together, you still manage to surprise me regularly.”

“Hopefully that means that I’m connecting with my wolf spirit too,” Lolo laughed.

Standig drew his sword to carefully interrupt the match between the two girls. “Hey, guys!”

“Standig, you’re back!” Lolo grinned and sheathed her sword. “Did you bring Philige?”

Standig indicated the tunnel with a nod of his head.

“Hi, Philige!” Lolo smiled warmly. “I’ll get Fortus and Jadu.” She drew her sword again to crash the sparring match.

“Lolo? What’s up?” Fortus asked, shifting his attack against Jadu to instead bring his sword down over Lolo’s head.

Lolo blocked the attack and spun out to kick Jadu back. “Philige’s here.”

“Ah! So you’re here to show off?” Fortus teased with another attack.

“You caught me!” Lolo laughed as she dodged. “No, I thought you would want to know.”

Jadu sheathed his sword to join Ulana and Standig, and Fortus disengaged from Lolo to do the same.

“So this is your secret courtyard,” Philige was saying as he looked around.

“Dad showed it to me,” Standig said.

“Dad did?”

“Yeah. It was one of the last things we did together before the accident.”

Philige smiled. “Is this where you used to hide when Tadellos gave you a hard time?”

Standig nodded.

“So, Philige,” Fortus interrupted, “Lolo had the thought that someone should know where we train in case there is an emergency that we need to be aware of. Would you be willing to be that person?”

Philige made eye contact with Lolo and nodded. “What qualifies as an emergency?”

“Anything war related, and, otherwise, use your discretion,” Fortus informed him.

“If you come here and don’t see us in the courtyard, we are most likely at the meditation circle,” Lolo said. “Standig, why don’t you get your armor on for training? I’ll show Philige the circle, so he can find us there if he needs to.”

Standig nodded, and Lolo gestured for Philige to follow her into the trees to the east.

“Are you going to train with us today?” Lolo asked as they walked.

“Sorry?”

“You brought your training equipment.”

“Oh.... I don’t think I’m on the same level as you guys anymore,” Philige hesitated.

“That’s ok,” Lolo smiled generously.

“Would you mind if I joined you for a bit?”

“Not at all,” Lolo laughed. “There’s an odd number of us anyway.”

They walked through the dark forest fairly quietly, crossing a small stream as the clearing with the meditation circle came into view.

“So, this is where you meditate every day?” Philige asked.

“First thing every morning,” Lolo nodded. “I’m never completely awake when we start.”

“Have you explored any alternative options for developing your spiritual energy?”

“Sort of,” Lolo laughed. “I’ve started meditating at night about once a week. It’s made a ton of difference, actually. I still don’t like meditating, but it’s doing what it’s supposed to.”

“I can tell. Watching you spar with Ulana just now….” He trailed off, failing to find the words to express what he was thinking.

“Yeah, it has improved our swordsmanship, among other things.”

“I’ve never seen a match quite like that before,” Philige said. “You both were moving so quickly. I don’t even know how a normal person could hope to counter you.”

“I don’t know about that,” Lolo grinned. “I’m sure there are other people that have been training harder and longer than we have.”

“But they’re not aided by primordial spirits,” Philige countered. He seemed distracted, like he was deep in thought.

“Is everything ok?”

“Yeah. Just, I’m only beginning to understand what you being a primordial even means. I mean, it’s one thing to accept that you are a primordial with a mission to stop this war; it’s another thing to understand what that entails. From what I saw when I first got here, you primordials are incredibly powerful. You might not even realize just how powerful because you’ve all been developing slowly over time.”

“Interesting,” Lolo’s eyebrows knit together. “We haven’t even completed our training.”

“How will you know that you’ve completed your training?”

“We have to discover our ultimates and learn how to control them.”

“What’s an ultimate?”

“It’s a special ability that develops from our bond with our animal spirits.” Lolo looked up to see the confused look on Philige’s face and laughed. “Yeah. It’s vague. But you’ll remember that Jadu healed Fortus with fire….”

“That’s Jadu’s ultimate?”

“Yes. We all have our own ultimates to discover. And then we have to learn how to control them.”

“And I’m assuming that these ultimates are all equally as impressive as Jadu’s fire?”

“Presumably,” Lolo shrugged. “We don’t really know until we discover them.”

“How do you discover them?”

“That’s what the meditating is for. We have to develop deep spiritual connections with our primordial spirits first, and then, theoretically, we’ll be able to produce our ultimates and practice using them.”

“How long do you have to train before you get to that point? I mean, it’s been four months already.”

“Months, years…. We don’t know. As long as it takes.” Again, Lolo shrugged.

“That’s got to be frustrating.”

“At times, it is, but, as you’ve observed, we are making progress.” Lolo smiled as Philige continued to scowl. “Should we head back? I’m sure Standig has his armor on by now.”

“That’s right! So this is the armor Durfein made?”

Lolo nodded and turned around slowly for Philige to admire the handiwork as they walked back to the courtyard.

“It looks incredible. And it suits you.”

“Thanks! Durfein really did an amazing job. I know he enjoyed drawing design inspiration from each of the main tribes. You’ll notice that Ulana’s scalemail armor is actually designed to look like feathers, and Fortus has a lion’s mane detailed into his breastplate….”

“And you have a moon embroidered on yours,” Philige noted.

Lolo smiled and mindlessly fingered Durfein’s stitching. “I’m actually not sure if it’s intended to be the moon or Crescent Lake or both, but either way, it’s my favorite design element.”

“You and Durfein must have been close.”

“What makes you say that?”

“'Just an observation. It would seem that he knew you well.”

“I suppose,” Lolo agreed hesitantly.

“Ulana told me that you took it pretty hard when he died.”

Lolo stopped walking to look Philige in the eyes. “Where are you going with this?”

“Sorry! I didn’t mean anything by it.” Philige was suddenly flustered. “I wasn’t thinking.”

“What else did Ulana tell you?”

Philige’s blush told her everything she wanted to know, and Lolo took off running to find Ulana before Philige could respond.

“Ulana, a quick word,” Lolo said, grabbing Ulana’s arm and pulling her to a quiet edge of the courtyard. “You told Philige about Durfein?”

Ulana looked sheepish. “Kind of. It came up when I told him to expect a delivery for us from the Phoenix Tribe. Why? Should I not have?”

“That was private, Ulana. Had you not been there for all of it, I probably wouldn’t have even told you!”

“I’m-I’m sorry, Lolo. I didn’t realize. Are you mad at me?”

Lolo sighed and thought about it. “I’m not mad at you, but Philige is worried about me.”

“How can I fix this?”

“You can start by telling me what you told him.”

“Ok. I told him how we found the armor and about Durfein’s letter to you. And I told him that, last time we talked about Durfein, right after he kissed you, you weren’t sure about your feelings for him, but that when we found him dead, you fainted.”

Lolo’s hands covered her face as she groaned. “Ulana! Why would you tell him that?”

“Which part?” Ulana’s apologetic tone was sincere.

“About me fainting! It makes it sound like I was deeply in love with Durfein. Of course Philige is worried about me!”

“I’m really, really sorry, Lolo.”

Exhaling sharply, Lolo looked up at her friend. “Next time, please ask me before telling other people about my relationships?”

Ulana raised her right hand in a sort of swear. “Promise!”

“Thank you. I need to have a little chat with the Bear Tribe leader. Excuse me?” Lolo turned around expecting to see Philige talking with the boys, but he wasn’t there. “Standig, have you seen Philige?”

“He just left. Why?”

“Nothing. Just, excuse me for a minute,” Lolo said and chased Philige out.

Philige had just climbed down the cliff face when Lolo burst through the tunnel.

“Hey! Wait up a sec,” Lolo shouted as she followed the narrow walkway to the end. Hanging from the ledge, Lolo allowed herself to drop the last ten feet or so to the ground, landing nimbly on her feet and left hand. “We need to talk.”

“Ok?” Philige was obviously uncomfortable.

“Ulana told you everything about my relationship with Durfein except the part that I’ve been keeping to myself.”

“And what’s that?”

“Durfein may have been in love with me, but I wasn’t in love with him. My regret is that I didn’t love him the way he deserved or wanted me to love him. But, that said, we were good friends, and I do miss him terribly.”

Studying her face carefully, Philige nodded. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you’ve been worrying about me.”

“H-how did you know?” he asked, a little taken aback.

“You’ve brought it up both times we’ve been alone together this last month. I got the feeling both times that you were offering to listen if I needed to talk about it, and while I appreciate that, I’m doing alright.”

Without a response to give her and feeling embarrassed, Philige cleared his throat and looked down at his toes.

"Were you going to stay and spar with us?”

“I-I should get back,” Philige said awkwardly, taking a few steps back.

“Next time then,” Lolo stated and gave him a quick hug before turning to climb the rock wall again.