Normally, a human in this part of the forest was not a problem, or at least not much of one. However, this human was too close to his mother’s territory for Liam’s comfort, considering his entire family had just been threatened by another foreigner in these woods not even five hours ago. Considering how weird the greater arboreal ape had been, being able to hide its tier and access an Ethereal concept a tier early, this was too much of a coincidence for Liam’s overly suspicious mind. Liam reacted swiftly.

“Astra, what are we looking at?” Liam said, his suspicion starting to bleed into anger. He could see through the link with Vit that this human was an older female. She was poking around the pond where Liam wanted to retrieve the Water Lotus, which was why Vit had seen her. She was literally exactly where they had been headed, which made Liam even more suspicious.

This is bad Li. Astra’s words scrawled across his vision. This was one of those times where she knew to switch. Liam was glad she was even more aware of their situation than he was most of the time. It made his job as the one with a body a lot easier. She’s really strong. Two Grandmaster rank Elemental magics, a few lower-ranked ones, and Master rank Ethereal Nature magic.

Liam paused. “There is no way I can fight that,” He admitted with a mounting sense of frustration

Yup. I’m sorry Li, but you’re just going to have to let Lorna deal with this if they had anything to do with the ape. Even if you could trigger Berserk again, there’s no guarantee you would win. In fact you probably wouldn’t even touch her.

Liam sighed heavily. He had been doing that more often than normal today. He didn’t want to listen to Astra. Every part of him was screaming to not let someone this dangerous near his family. But, Astra was basically never wrong, and any time in the past when he had ignored her warnings it always went badly. Then, Liam had an idea.

“Ok, hear me out.” Liam looked down at his arm, indicating that they should continue this conversation without eye writing. “What if I just observe her? Does she have an observation power that can see through my Stealth?” There was a pause.

No. Astra wrote after a long time. She obviously wasn’t very taken with the idea, but if she wasn’t dead set against it, that meant it could work. Seeing his opportunity, Liam pressed on.

“Well, why don’t I just watch a bit? Who knows, maybe we’ll learn something. Worse case, we learn nothing, I go home and let Mom know and she takes care of it. Best case, this is just some random Harvester out looking for herbs or some Beast components that went too close to the deep woods. Either way, no harm done.” Liam said, smiling winningly.

You do know most of your ideas are terrible for our health right? This has a decent chance of getting you killed and my consciousness destroyed. If you go home now, there is no chance anything goes wrong. This person can’t beat Lorna, Li. Everything is fine. The most she could do is stop Lorna from immediately killing her and run.

“I believe you, Ash,” Liam said pleadingly. “But I can’t let some random person near Mom or my siblings without doing anything. I just can’t.” Liam’s whole arm vibrated with the most intense sigh he had ever felt from Astra.

Fine. But if I get even the slightest sense that she notices us, we bail.

Liam suppressed a smile. “Absolutely. Safety first.” Liam replied. He received no response. Shrugging, Liam began heading toward the pond the lady was walking around. Once he was within a mile, he dropped down to the ground and began sneaking toward the human’s position. Carefully, wary of any detection magic that might have been employed, Liam approached within thirty feet of the woman. Listening carefully, He could hear the woman humming some sort of tune softly as she moved around the pond. Carefully peeking around a tree, after checking from Vit’s point of view that it was out of his target’s line of sight, Liam got his first good look at the human.

She was wearing a dress, of all things. A long, sky blue, modestly cut dress. It went all the way down to her ankles, and with sleeves down to her elbows ending with a slight frill in both cases. This was odd in the extreme. The forest was a dangerous place for the vast majority of humans. Liam had seen his fair share of them. The Harvester Guild sent people into the deep woods on occasion for some rare resource. His mother wasn't against humans entering her territory so long as they paid a tribute, which they did, every time. To be out this far, in an area where tier four Beasts weren’t uncommon, in no armor at all was insanity. But, the woman was alive, which meant she was so powerful that tier four Beasts didn’t threaten her.

“Astra was right.” Liam thought internally, “I couldn’t fight her. Especially if her primary offense is magic.” Liam had no way to deal with truly high-level magic. He was lucky that most Beasts didn’t know anything beyond basic spells. Anything that was more competent was well out of his league anyway.

Looking at this Grandmaster magician, Liam was surprised. She didn’t glow with arcane power or wield a staff or other magical focus. She had a woven basket and was picking flowers for Grim’s sake! Growling internally, Liam made a specific hand signal to let Astra know he wanted the details on his target.

Right, well her name is Teafa Mhic Corra, she is five foot eleven inches tall. She is an S rank Harvester Guild member stationed in Wrolis and is married to one Chen Min, also an S rank Harvester. She is one hundred and forty-seven, so ridiculously young to be at her rank. She is Grandmaster rank in both water and flora Elemental magic and Master rank in Ethereal flora magic as well. Her entire combat skillset is magical. She would qualify as a grand magus if she was in a magicians guild.

One hundred and forty-seven. She didn’t look it. Except for the straight silver-grey hair that went past her shoulders, the woman looked the same as a normal forty year old at the latest. She had laugh lines on her face, sure, but her complexion was clear. With golden skin and a heart-shaped face, she was rather pretty. Honestly she looked old than he would expect for someone that young. She must have a rather low Constitution ability.

I doubt she had anything to do with the ape, Li. It doesn’t fit at all. She probably just happened to be in the area. ‘Liam nodded. He had a gut feeling that agreed with Astra, and if there was anything he trusted, it was Astra and his gut. Satisfied, Liam readied himself to sneak away. He would just have to have to get the Water Lotus at another pond.

Just then, as he was beginning to ease away from his hiding spot and into the forest, the woman's humming stopped. Liam’s incredibly sensitive ears picked up a quiet muttering “...Kindred life, bind my foes in unshakable bonds, and defend me from all woes…” In a soft melodic voice. Eyes going wide, Liam realized the woman was using a spell encant, and a high level one, if she was a Grandmaster. Breaking into a sprint, Liam attempted to use Overload. However, when he reached for the mana of the skill, it fizzled out.

You’re too taxed from earlier Li, you can’t use Overload right now! You have to run!

The warning was proven moot in a moment, however, as roots sprouted from the ground around him. The roots were of many sizes, with the largest being thicker than Liam’s arms. They wrapped around him from all angles, leaving no room for escape. In an instant, Liam was bound tight, his arms at his sides and his legs together, standing straight up in the roots’ grasp. Flexing against his bonds, Liam could tell that he wasn’t getting out of this without Overload.

I, I don’t know what to do Li.

“It’s not your fault Astra,” Liam growled quietly, frustrated with himself. He should know better than to argue with Astra, but he let his anger and fear get the better of him. “Thank you for trying. You warned me and I didn’t listen. This is on me.”

I don’t think she’s going to kill you, at least not immediately. She would have done that already if she wanted to. You need to be very careful.

Liam nodded, not responding verbally since his Lesser Tremorsense had picked up Teafa approaching swiftly. He could sense her lithe frame moving much more swiftly toward him than he would have expected. Within a few seconds, she had covered the distance between them and rounded the binding of roots that surrounded him. She looked him up and down briefly.

“Well, what do we have here? A child in this part of the woods with Stealth high enough to get within bow shot of me? That's rather odd.” She said, her deep timber laden with amusement, and a slight edge. “I would say that it might even be unique.” She stared him in the eye evenly, simply looking. Liam looked right back, his dark blue eyes meeting hers, which were so dark brown they were nearly indistinguishable from her pupils.

She wants you to respond dumb dumb!

“Oh, um. Hi?” Liam said timidly. This was the first time he had actually talked to a member of the godblessed races. He knew nothing of conversation or customs.

Teafa smirked at his stumbling statement. “Yes, hello child. Care to explain what you are doing out here, so far from the city? And wearing clothing that looks to have been made by a dryad?” Teafa responded, her tone even more amused. She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, waiting for his response.

Liam started panicking. His gut was telling him that Teafa wasn’t all that angry, or even very likely to hurt him, but Liam was more concerned about what she would do if she learned about Lorna’s children. His mom had kept both him and his siblings as far from humans as possible to prevent them from being used to capture or kill her. Or anything else. The uses for the children of a Transcendent Beast were nearly as great as a Transcendent Beast themselves. What was he going to say that didn’t reveal their existence? Lying wasn’t a skill of his, and the entire reason he was out here was because of his siblings.

“Aaaaah. Yeah…’ Liam stalled, really wishing he could let Astra do the talking.

Just tell her Li. She’s a good person. You can trust her. I’ve been looking at what I can of her past.

Liam let out a sigh of relief. If Astra said it was fine, that was good enough for him. After all, he trusted her with his life.

“Right, hello Teafa Mhic Corra, my name is Liam, and I’m Lorna’s son,” Liam said with a smile. Whatever she had been expecting him to say, it wasn’t that.

Teafa’s eyes went wide, then narrowed as her head cocked to the side with confusion. “What? You expect me to believe a human is the child of a Beast?” She said incredulously.

“I’m adopted obviously,” Liam responded, rolling his eyes.

“Oh you are, are you? What does Lorna look like then, if she is your mother.” Teafa shot back, thinking to expose his lie.

“She’s a seventh tier direwolf variant. If you’ve seen her, she probably looked like a seven-foot tall wolf with a primarily grey coat that had swaths of darkness on it, that moved with her steps. She has four horns on her head, two are black and start at the base of her jaw and run along the side of her muzzle. The other two are a blueish yellowish color on her forehead, and are kinda squiggly, like a lightning bolt.” Liam rattled off, having seen Lorna’s Beast form a thousand times. “That good enough?”

Teafa was staring at him hard, her face scrunched up in concentration. “Just one more thing. What color are her eyes?” Teafa said after a brief pause.

“Oh, that depends. Normally they’re kinda yellow but really bright. But, if she gets really mad, they turn this crazy red color. You didn’t hear that from me though.” he said, the last sentence coming out with not a small amount of fear.

Teafa was smiling again. “Oh? And why is that.” She said, all the amusement back in her voice.

Liam shifted uncomfortably, and not because of the roots still binding him. “Because, if you mention it, it makes her even angrier.” He said quietly.

“Alright, I believe you, you’re definitely one of Lorna’s kids,” Teafa said. “Only those who know her have ever seen her normal eyes.”

“Wait, what? You know my mom?” Liam said, confused.

Instead of responding immediately, Teafa made a motion, and the roots holding Liam relaxed, retreating back into the earth. “Yes. I met Lorna nearly a hundred and thirty years ago. Although, I haven’t seen her in almost a decade. The last time I talked to her, she was a few years into her litter gestating. Are they all fine?” Teafa questioned, a strange tone in her voice.

“Ah, yeah. Mom has seven biological children. She adopted me like, a year before her heir was born.” Liam replied, still a little shocked that this random human knew his mother. “Hold up. How do you know my mom?”

“Oh, I met her when we were both rather young, and we’ve been friends ever since. Now, my husband and I are the guild members stationed in Wrolis to deal with Lorna if the need should arrive. When we started this post thirty years ago, it was a bit of a vacation for us. After all, at that time Lorna had only just entered the seventh tier and wasn’t considered hostile to the sentient races.” Teafa began. “Honestly it ended up being a pretty mutually beneficial relationship.”

“Ok, so why haven’t you seen her in ten years then?” Liam asked. He figured they had some sort of argument. It was rare for sentients and Beasts to get along. At least that's what he had been told. And something about what she was saying didn’t sound quite right.

“I was sent on another mission to deal with a Beast wave near the capitol that ended up turning into a seventh tier subjugation mission,” Teafa said with a small sigh. “I only returned a month ago and was recuperating. I was actually planning on dropping by soon anyway.”

“Subjugation?” Liam said, never having heard the words before.

She means the Harvester guild needed her to kill something Li.

“Oh. Why not just say that then?” Liam muttered. Teafa gave him a weird look.

“Are you alright? I didn’t hurt you with the binding did I?” She said, concerned.

“What? No, I’m fine. That was an awesome spell though!” Liam exclaimed, finally relaxing as his mind caught up with the wild series of events that made up the last few minutes. “You’re amazing! Mom only knows basic enhancement magic. As far as what I can learn at least. Could you show me how to do that?” Liam questioned eagerly. The one thing he couldn’t learn from Astra was how to do magic.

Teafa smiled at the sudden shift in Liam. “We’ll see. Why don’t we ask your mom if that’s ok?” She said, letting the roots relax from around Liam and disappear back into the ground.

“Yeah, sure! Follow me.” Liam said, taking off into the forest. Before immediately turning around and running back. “Actually, I need to get Water Lotus. Did you see any?” He said, embarrassed.

Teafa smiled widely at him. “Why yes, I did. I was going to make some rather lovely tea with it. What did you want it for?” She asked.

“You can make the tea? That's great! Would you mind sharing some with my sister?” Liam went into detail with Teafa about Lorelie and her issues. His gut and Astra had told him he could trust this woman, so he didn’t hold back. As they walked Liam told his new companion about the various goings-on of the forest that happened while she was away. His mother’s territory had grown, extending ever closer to the plains to the east, where the city of Wrolis was located. Mostly though, he talked about his siblings.

Teafa listened to it all with patience and understanding. She smiled at his childish enthusiasm as he talked about them. His joy at their victories and his sorrow over their losses. By now she was quite certain Liam thought of himself as almost a second parent to the Beast children, even though they were almost his age. He was very mature, even considering how old he looked, which she expected was much older than his real age. She could tell Liam cared deeply for his brothers and sisters, and it made her appreciation for the strange child grow.

After Teafa assured Liam that she had already gathered the Water Lotus, they collected her basket of herbs and headed back toward the greater arboreal ape corpse, where Liam had left his sack and the Jackletrout meat, both next to the corpse. The stench of a dead sixth tier would discourage any other Beasts from going near, lest they run into whatever had done the killing.

Teafa was interested in a few strange things about Liam that she had observed as they walked. For example, he had silver, glowing tattoos that moved around his body, made of symbols she did not recognize. Teafa had never seen such magic before. Also, he was walking through the forest without a care, in bloodstained clothing without any weapons. Needless to say, he was an odd kid.

"Liam," Teafa interjected, stopping him in the middle of a story about a time Ziac had challenged Heather in a fight and ended up stuck through a tree. "How can you be alright wandering around out here? There are many Beasts at and above the third tier. You don't even have a weapon. Does Lorna know you're out this far?" She questioned with not a small amount of concern.

"Oh, I'm fine. Anything worth mentioning in Mom's territory doesn't mess with us 'cause they're too scared to make Mom mad, and there aren't many Beasts out here above third tier. There are only, what? Two fifth tiers along the deep forest edge on the west side? One of them is a hundred-thousand-year-old gigatortise named Benjamin who likes to give me Lightning Jade if I scrub his shell, and the other is a direwolf variant with a fire element that always asks me how my mom is doing in a weird way. I'm pretty safe." Liam said with a smile. “Plus, my Stealth is at Intermediate, so most things can’t see me anyway. That reminds me, how did you notice me?”

Teafa pauses for a moment in surprise. Having a skill at Intermediate rank at his age is very impressive. Overcoming her surprise and focusing on the conversation once more, Teafa went about answering Liam’s question. “Well, I didn’t for a while, until I stepped on a root of the tree you were hiding behind, and it kindly informed me of your presence.” She said. She had been rather impressed that she hadn’t noticed him beforehand, come to think of it.

“What!? You can talk to plants?! Isn’t that really rare though? I mean even if you are a Grandmaster in Elemental Fauna and all…” Liam exclaimed, impressed at such a rare ability.

“Yes it is very rare, but I’ve been around plants my entire life and- wait. How did you know I’m a Grandmaster?” Teafa shifted sharply. She was certain she hadn’t mentioned that to Liam.

His eyes went wide as he realized his mistake. “Oh. Right. Well, you see. Ummmm…” Liam stalled. He truly was terrible at lying. Then, coming to the rescue as per usual, his forearm lit up, signaling that Astra was fine talking to Teafa. At least, that's what Liam assumed her usual signal that she wanted to talk meant in this context. “Right, I’ll just let Astra explain,” Liam said, Lifting his arm toward Teafa. They both stopped and looked at it, as silver symbols swirled across the surface of his skin.

Yes, hello Teafa Mhic Corra.

Teafa’s eyes went wide in surprise as the arcane symbols resolved into plain text.

I’m Astra. Nice to meet you.

“Ah, hello Astra, pleased to meet you as well. Even if it's not in person. Would you please tell me who exactly you are, what method of communication this is, and why you implanted it onto a child?” Teafa recovered from her shock extremely quickly and immediately began to question who she perceived to be another individual using some arcane form of communication. It was a big world after all, and although long-distance communication was rare, it was something she had come across several times.

“Hey, it’s not like that-” Liam said indignantly. Or started to say, until he felt a pinch on his arm.

It’s fine, Li. It makes sense that she would think like that. This whole situation is a lot weirder than you think it is, since your common sense is off.

Liam grumbled, but let Astra continue uninterrupted.

Alright, to explain… wow, I’ve never actually had to explain this to someone before. New experience, great! Anyway, I’m this- The letters swirled along Liam's arm before reforming. -energy. I’m not hiding somewhere else or anything.

This gave Teafa much more of a surprise. “...What?” was all she said.

Ok, right, do you know about the Astral Codex?

“You mean the font of infinite knowledge owned by the goddess of the sky? Yes, I know about it. You learn about it in school as a child.” Teafa said, wondering where this was going.

Yes, that’s me.

“Oh.” Teafa didn’t say anything else. Liam felt Astra’s sigh reverberate through his arm.

This is going to take some explaining.