Nicholas calls for some tila and then looks at Markus expectantly. His heir is about to speak when Marta comes in to serve the tila, her trembling making the porcelain cups rattle on the tray. Nicholas ignores her – in his experience, the best way to handle this sort of dread is to ignore it. In time, she will learn that they will not snap at her or order her punished for such minor offences – actions, not reassurances, have more effect in these cases.

  His heir hasn’t learned the same lesson yet – he tries to calm the girl down but his direct focus only seems to make her trembling worse. Markus falls silent when the rattling turns into slopping and Marta pales even further.

  When she’s out of the room, Sarran follows her after a glance from Nicholas. The lord clears his throat.

  “Your tale, Markus?” he prompts with a touch of impatience. The more he’s learned about his heir, the more curious he’s become and now the opportunity to hear the full story is here, he is determined not to waste any more time.

  “Of course,” Markus answers quickly, then hesitates briefly, perhaps wondering where to start. Nicholas is about to suggest that he starts at the beginning when the man begins to speak.

  “I suppose I’d better give you a bit of context first.” Nicholas listens as Markus outlines his history. Motherless at fourteen, Fatherless at twenty-seven, his history seems almost as unfortunate as Nicholas’ own. The lord nods when Markus confirms that he was indeed no sort of noble on this ‘earth’ – it explains why so many noble mannerisms are alien to him. At least he was no menial or labourer either – his occupation seemed to be similar to that of the green-clothed palace staff.

  That he’s got at least some experience with back-stabbing politics is both clear and welcome, as is the fact that he was a green rather than, say, a violet. Nicholas shudders at the thought. With a bit of polish, Markus might manage to visit the bank without accidentally dragging their House into the courts.

  The tale also relieves something else Nicholas has been worrying about – the fear that his new heir is a drunkard. It’s been a relief that Markus hasn’t asked for any alcohol since his arrival – and Nicholas has intentionally not offered it. However, even if his heir passed that test, it might have only been because he was forced to have a dry spell while in the other world. Healing can undo damage from drinking, but if someone won’t stop, it’s just a bandage over a wound. Nicholas knows from observation that a heavy drinker makes a poor lord – one who makes foolish decisions and says foolish things.

  If Markus is to be believed and his over-indulgence was caused by several incidences of bad news, he can be forgiven as long as he doesn’t make a habit of it. Nicholas notes the absence of something in the tale, but doesn’t believe Markus is hiding a drinking habit.

  With that context given, Markus continues his tale of his first days in the other world. Nicholas finds himself shaking his head at how ineptly Markus approached the survival challenge – he’s extremely lucky that he didn’t die within the first tenday. Come to think of it, Nicholas is just as lucky. Had Markus died, he’d have been left without an heir – and uncertain whether he could even afford to repeat the experiment. Then again, perhaps the Oracle took such things into account during her predictions – is luck something that the Oracle can look for? Because Markus certainly seems to have a lot of it.

  Between acting like he’d never gone on a hunt in the forest before – which, if Markus is telling the truth, he hadn’t, and what kind of a world did he come from? – and surviving his brush with a territorial mother nunda, Nicholas reckons that if there was a Luck attribute, Markus would have at least twenty. Markus has been a bit cagey about admitting what his attributes were when he first absorbed the Class which makes Nicholas even more curious. He decides not to press, though – there are more important questions to ask.

  “The nunda mother and cub….are they the same who are part of your entourage now?”

  “They are,” Markus confirms.

  “How did you manage that, then?” Nicholas asks curiously. “From your tale, the mother was adamant that she didn’t want to have anything to do with a ‘Binder’.”

  “She didn’t,” Markus agrees wryly. “And in many ways, she still doesn’t. It’s a long story, and one probably best told in context.” Nicholas interpreted that to be a polite way of asking him to be patient.

  “Then continue,” Nicholas orders, waving his hand.

  Markus does so, telling of his first Bonded and dwelling perhaps overlong on how uncomfortable he had felt after forcing the Bond on an unwilling beast. Nicholas thought that Markus was probably trying to make a point, but it was rather undermined by the fact that he had continued Binding other beasts. If he had objected so much, he didn’t have to use his Class Skills. Of course, Nicholas is glad that he did, but it was ultimately Markus’ choice.

  Bastet comes up – the feathered larnatis – and Nicholas notes that Markus very quickly started using the Battle of Wills to negotiate rather than dominate. He’s never heard of that, though his penultimate ancestor was known for being as different to his father – the original Lord Titanbend – as water is from fire. It’s due purely to that ancestor that Companion Bond even exists in the possible development paths for Dominate. Nicholas makes a mental note to give that ancestor’s grimoire to Markus when they return to the manor – he suspects that Markus will have much in common with him.

  When Markus relates how he explored an underground tunnel he knew was most likely infested with venomous beasts – and had no backup plan for if things went wrong – Nicholas can’t hold in his exclamation.

  “What were you thinking? Tunnels in mountains are dangerous! You could have become stuck, or fallen down a hole and been trapped, or ambushed by a creature using it as their home! I do not believe you had any of your Shaping Skills at that point? You haven’t mentioned them if you did.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “No, I didn’t,” Markus admits, slightly shame-faced. “And looking back on it now, yeah, it was a bit reckless. Because I did get stuck – and it was the worst thing that happened to me.” He hesitates. “Actually, maybe not. Maybe the worst thing that happened to me was when I got stuck and attacked by a creature who lived there.” Then he reconsiders while Nicholas’ eyebrows threaten to lift off his forehead. “No, scratch both of those – worse things happened later.”

  “I’m abruptly uncertain whether I want to know,” Nicholas mutters uneasily. He’s exaggerating – a little. He does want to know, and at least the presence of Markus in front of him reassures him that, whatever happened, his heir managed to find a way through it. Or Lady Luck was with him even in another world.

  When he sees Markus eyeing him uncertainly, he makes an impatient gesture with his hand. “I didn’t mean that – go on.”

  “Alright, good, because, honestly, this is probably the least weird part of the year so….” he trails off, then, catching the impatience in Nicholas’ eyes, quickly starts again.

  Nicholas listens to his retelling of encountering a many-tentacled beast – which Markus confesses he later found out was a Tier three ‘fellapodil’. Nicholas finds that disturbing for two reasons: that Markus somehow managed to encounter two Tier threes in an area that was supposed to be a ‘safe, starting area’ according to the Oracle, and that he must have gone back to have a second encounter with the fellapodil or how would he know what it was called or its tier?

  His heart leaps into his mouth as he hears that Markus’ brain and spine were fractured when he was thrown against the wall – only the fact that Markus is sitting in front of him with no obvious injuries to either reassures him. Nicholas might blame the brain injury for his poor decision-making skills except for the fact that it happened after he’d already decided to explore the tunnel. At least Markus was able to overcome such a challenge, and it does explain some things – it’s through dramatic situations such as the one Markus managed to live through that the most powerful Skills are developed. He’s coming to suspect that Markus’ starting Intelligence and Wisdom weren’t very high, though – an explanation for his caginess.

  The news that Markus was given a task by the nunda mother when he returned to the cave they shared – an arrangement that sounds more like a child’s fae-tale – is surprising but not nearly as much as the fact that he was able to use Lay-on-Hands to heal his brain and spine. The most incredible part of it, though, is that a Tier three mother would be willing to give a task of such importance to a human. They’re known for being proud and willful beasts – even Nicholas has never tried to Tame or Dominate one.

  When Markus speaks about the carnivorous trees, Nicholas recognises that from the Records of Ancestry’s description about his heir.

  “This is the Tier four threat that you destroyed?”

  “It is,” Markus confirms, “but not at this point. Though I did find out about its sensitivity to fire at this time – without that, I wouldn’t have been able to defeat it.”

  “I see.”

  Nicholas can’t help but interject again as Markus recounts how he found and rescued the nunda cub.

  “So, you had Bound one of these, ah, samurans, one who had direct contact with the cub in question, and yet you felt it most strategically effective to go in yourself and let yourself be put in a cage while the obvious leaders debated over whether to kill you immediately or not?” he asks incredulously. Markus avoids his gaze.

  “I didn’t trust River at that point,” he admits. “I was worried that if it was left up to him, he would bungle it intentionally. Lathani’s life was worth too much for me to risk that.”

  “So, instead, you risked your own, hoping that you and she would both be able to escape unnoticed?”

  “I wanted to be present to make sure that River was following my instructions,” Markus snaps defensively.

  “Even though you’d convinced him that the only way his village could survive was to return the cub to its mother?”

  “I was worried, OK?” Markus snaps again, his expression angry. Nicholas gazes at him coolly until he relaxes a little. “Look, I’m sorry for snapping. It just seemed like the right thing to do at the time.”

  “I suppose what I should ask you now, then,” Nicholas starts after a moment of pause, “is whether, in hindsight, you would do it the same way.” Markus hesitates, then shakes his head.

  “It’s hard to say. It’s different now. I’m different now. I have more Bound, more Skills, more options in general. I don’t want to ask my Bound to do anything I wouldn’t be prepared to do myself if it came down to it, but I do recognise that that doesn’t mean I have to be in the middle of the situation all the time.”

  Nicholas nods slowly – at least he’s showing some growth.

  “Good. And this River…is he the same one as you are still Bonded with now?”

  “He…she is,” Markus confirms. Nicholas wonders whether to ask about the pronoun change, but then decides that it’s probably not worth the time – they only have a couple of marks before they will have to prepare to leave for dinner, and much to do during that time. Besides, changing sex might be rare, but it’s not unheard of. If it’s important to the tale, Nicholas imagines that it will come up later.

  “So, you obviously did retrieve the cub in the end…” Nicholas prompts and Markus continues. The lord is surprised and impressed despite himself at the fact that Markus managed to gain a Skill even while he was sitting in a cage in the midst of enemies. The Skill itself is one that Nicholas has discounted as mostly for mages, but Markus seems to have gained a good deal of use out of it. Given how far Markus has advanced it since, Nicholas can only assume that it’s more widely applicable than he’d thought.

  He listens with interest as Markus speaks about how they escaped – and the Pathwalker they killed in the process. Given what Markus’ words have implied about the position of importance the Pathwalkers held within the samuran village, he wondered whether it was this act rather than the theft of the cub that had prompted pursuit. Or perhaps it was a combination of both.

  Nicholas could have guessed that they would end up returning to the carnivorous trees – that just seemed to be inevitable given what he’s learned of Markus’ luck thus far. Fireside tales of old warn that Lady Luck’s attention isn’t always a gift – nothing offers quite as much opportunity as a crisis which brings one to the brink.

  The mention of the ley line – what Markus calls a ‘stream of Pure Energy’ – is expected but welcome. That was in the Records of Ancestry, after all. The presence of fire-aspected pure Cores is a boon that more than makes up for the danger of getting to them. They might also explain why Markus was able to develop Fire-Shaping – pure Cores are rare but incredibly beneficial when used correctly.

  What Markus did upon finding encountering the Pure Energy, however, was most certainly not.

  “You did what?” he splutters, his eyes wide.

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