“Thank you,” the candidate replies politely. “It’s nice to meet you at last. I’m Markus Wolfe.” At least he has some manners, even if they are slightly odd ones. To be expected from someone from an entirely different world, Nicholas supposes. He finds himself curious about how many other differences there will be, though hopes that this won’t cause too many issues. An irritating number of people seem to think that form is far more important than content.

  “Ser Wolfe, greetings,” Nicholas responds, inclining his head a touch in a gesture of respect. “I hope that the passage through the Gateway was not too disorientating.”

  Wolfe looks at him with a wry expression.

  “I suspect that it was easier on me than it was on you,” he comments with a sardonic tone to his voice. Nicholas clears his throat, a little embarrassed despite himself at having his collapse be the first thing the candidate saw of him.

  “I overextended myself,” he defends, holding onto his calm. “I did not expect the Gateway to remain open so long. You must have accumulated an impressive amount of Energy to do so,” he comments. An impressive amount of Energy to match an impressive range of Bonded.

  Sarran was not mistaken – the big probable-nunda is indeed Tier three: Nicholas’ Inspect Fauna Skill told him as much when he took advantage of the time while the candidate was absorbing the language stone to send out a pulse. He doesn’t think that she sensed his probe – while his Skill has frustratingly never passed the first bottleneck, his own level and amount of Willpower should outweigh her detection skills unless she is even more impressive than she looks.

  In addition to the Tier three, Markus Wolfe has managed to Bind multiple Tier twos – in fact, in a complete reversal of the usual state of things, only six of his nineteen Bonded are Tier one. In addition, as if having the Tier three nunda isn’t enough, he has a second nunda. This one is a ‘mere’ Tier two – as if it could be somehow shameful to Bind a creature at a level which only those with a Willpower of at least forty-five points could even hope to match in a Battle of Wills. And that is only for the weakest. From what Nicolas can see, none of the Tier twos in the candidate’s following are likely to be considered among the weakest of beasts – Wolfe must have at least fifty Willpower to bear their Bonds, perhaps closer to sixty. Which is rather impressive to accumulate in a single year.

  Of course, the oracle indicated that the in-between world would have more Energy than Nicholas’ – that was part of the objective. Perhaps that explained both the higher level of the beasts and the candidate’s surprising accumulation of Willpower points.

  As for the Bonds themselves, several of them are stronger than Nicholas would expect from a relationship which has taken only a year at most to develop. The biggest winged-feline is one of them – it looks similar to a larnatis, though is fully feathered rather than furred. Another two are wound around the smaller humanoid lizards – and now Nicholas doesn’t doubt Sarran’s implication of sapience: one of them was clearly either cooking or potions-making over a fire when he arrived, and another seems to be carving something. Of the remaining three, two bear obvious weapons. They all have the gleam of sapience in their eyes – actually, almost all of the candidate’s Tier two Bonded have the same.

  Either Wolfe is very lucky to have chosen Tier ones who were likely to develop sapience at Tier two, a higher proportion of beasts develop sapience in that other world, or the candidate only brought his best Bonded with him. Though the implications of that last option are that the candidate must have a much higher level of Willpower than Nicholas has guessed – the more Bonded or the more powerful Bonded someone has, the more Willpower they must possess to hold and control the Bonds.

  All in all, Nicholas can already tell that the candidate has made full use of his time in the other world when it comes to gathering Bonded. Perhaps Nicholas should himself have prepared a little more – he wasn’t expecting the candidate to have arrived with such a powerful coterie. Without moving, he sends a faint mental probe over the tattoos painted over his shoulders, chest, and back. They stir faintly; his resident Bonded will respond quickly to his call if needed. Still, hopefully that won’t be the case – the candidate’s responses have been promising so far.

  “Over-extending happens to all of us,” the candidate responds to him with surprising affability. “I hope you are feeling better now?”

  “I am much improved,” Nicholas agrees, not missing the fact that the candidate has managed to avoid commenting on how much Energy he accumulated to pay for his passage. Nicholas decides not to press him on it – the evidence of how long the Gateway stayed open speaks enough for itself. He finds himself eager to move onto the next part of the conversation – finding out just how much progress Wolfe has made in the year away and discovering whether he will be willing to become heir to House Titanbend and take part in the competition which poses a threat to them all.

  With that in mind, he gestures towards the table that Sarran must have brought out from the house earlier.

  “Shall we take a seat?”

  “Oh, sure,” Wolfe agrees, blinking in surprise. Nicholas makes a mental note that if Wolfe does become his heir, he will need some significant tutoring on hiding his emotions. Much as it works to Nicholas’ benefit in this conversation, he will be eaten alive by other nobles if he doesn’t learn to mask his reactions. Knowledge is power.

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  They sit across from each other near the head of the table. Nicholas diplomatically doesn’t take the head position to which he’s entitled as the lord of the estate, even if this table is in the garden rather than in the dining room. He’s pleased when the candidate doesn’t take it either.

  Without any obvious signal, several of the candidate’s Bonded move to join him – the winged feline with the strongest Bond of all of them moves to sit on his right; the smaller spotted feline moves to his left. Two of the humanoid lizards step forward to stand behind him, looking uncommonly like guards. Nicholas wonders whether the candidate communicated through their Bonds, or whether they’re just so well-trained that they moved automatically. Even the Tier three settles slightly nearer than she had been before – not close enough for Nicholas to feel it’s a threat, but she’s clearly paying attention to the events.

  “So,” Wolfe starts before Nicholas can open his mouth. “I’ve been dying to know for a year – why exactly have you brought me here?”

  Nicholas struggles to keep a rueful smile from his own face – only long-practice allows him to succeed. Now, that just hits right at the centre of the target, does it not?

  “I need an heir,” he says bluntly, taking his cue from the candidate’s own question – his instincts tell him that this candidate would prefer to avoid the usual flowery language of this sort of meeting. It will take a bit of effort on Nicholas’ part – he’s far more used to needing to couch his meaning in more oblique phrasing. But this needs to go well. “And I hope that that can be you.”

  Wariness enters Wolfe’s expression.

  “You hope that it can be me? What might mean that it isn’t?”

  “Well, you must be willing to be such,” Nicholas points out. “And you must also be suitable.”

  That wariness increases. Perhaps he was too blunt there?

  “And am I ‘suitable’?” Nicholas hears the quotation marks around Wolfe’s words as clearly as if he’d written the words. Nicholas hesitates to answer – should he be blunt here too? It is a difficult question at this point in the proceedings. If he goes purely off the Oracle’s words, then the candidate is suitable by consequence of having made it through the Gateway. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have survived the year. However, at the same time, Nicholas prefers to make his own judgements where he can – he only followed the Oracle’s words so closely because he felt that there was no better choice. But now that he’s faced with the results of his actions, he is uncertain how to feel or what to say.

  “I cannot say for certain; I will have to know more of what you can do,” Nicholas ends up equivocating. More knowledge can only be helpful, surely. He can only hope that the candidate will accept that.

  Wolfe hums, his expression unreadable for the first time since the conversation started. Nicholas fears that he might have misstepped despite his best efforts.

  “I see. You say that I must be willing – you’re giving me the choice?” Nicholas senses that this is a very loaded question; he will have to be careful here or the jaws of the trap will spring closed on him.

  “My heir must be as interested as I am in the betterment of my House,” he answers carefully. “Yes, it must be your choice. I will not try to coerce you if you are unwilling, though I will certainly try to convince you to make another choice.”

  The sense of a trap poised to snap closed fades – Nicholas has answered rightly. It’s a relief – although he doesn’t know yet for sure that this candidate is the ideal candidate to be his heir, the fact is that he’s already proven himself to be better than most of the other options, if only because he has the right Class and he’s clearly accrued a significant number of powerful Bonded. Nicholas doesn’t want to insult Wolfe by Inspecting him directly, but considering the evidence, he might even be over level ten, which would be an astounding achievement for someone only a year into his Class – and that’s without needing to reserve Energy to pay for the Gateway.

  “Good to hear,” Wolfe responds and Nicholas has to suppress his reaction to the veiled threat in those words, the hint that if he had answered differently, violence might have ensued. He hears Sarran shift behind him and knows that his manservant has heard it too. Nicholas flicks his thumb in a gesture hidden from the candidate behind his fingers and Sarran stills again.

  It is an uncomfortable position to be in, to be so vulnerable. For their House to be so in need that he cannot make it clear to the candidate that threats will not be tolerated. But that is the reality. They need to stay on this man’s good side, or risk offending him and being no further forward than they were before. Indeed, they would have lost time and the resources invested in Wolfe and bringing him to this world. But that’s the risk Nicholas has taken. It remains to be seen if it will pay off. “So, what does it mean to be your ‘heir’? What would I have to do?”

  It’s an interesting choice of questions. Nicholas adds the observation to the list of others he has made since waking.

  “Would you not first prefer to hear what benefits you would gain as heir?” he asks curiously.

  Wolfe gains a surprisingly jaded look on his face.

  “Been there, done that. I’ve experienced far too many adverts which start with all the benefits, all the reviews, all the ‘this is what the product would cost if I calculate what every single aspect of it is worth’, and only get to the price at the end in hopes that you’re so desperate for the product by that point that you’ll pay anything. No, I’d rather know the cost upfront – or in this case, know what would be required of me. Then I can work out if the benefits are worth it.”

  Though adverts, reviews, and product are not words that he’s particularly familiar with, even if he thinks he can guess what they mean from context, it’s an unexpectedly analytical point of view. Nicholas is increasingly intrigued about where Wolfe comes from originally – the space that he’d seen when he’d visited the man right at the beginning of things had shown a room little different from most people’s studies. The main difference had been the lack of a fire, with a darkened mirror taking its place instead. Still, he understands that Wolfe is used to people trying to sell things to him, things which, if Nicholas is interpreting his tone correctly, he doesn’t want or doesn’t need. Good – he’ll need that experience to avoid some of the traps merchants always love to create for the average buyer.

  “Very well, as you wish,” Nicholas concedes. He cannot pretend that it doesn’t please him to know that the candidate is seriously considering what his responsibilities will be as heir – it is a good indication that he doesn’t intend to just take all the benefits without doing any work to deserve them. So far, the candidate is acquitting himself well enough in Nicholas’ books.

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