The day after Carmil's true self was revealed and all faerie broke loose through the dungeon, Fuyuko begaraining in her room. Kazue had not expily what was going on, just that Fuyuko was going to want the privacy. Once she had returo her room after breakfast, she let Kazue know that she was ready.

  The illusion ptform flicked to life with Kazue's image. "Alright, this training requires a bit of background," she began. "The first thing that you o know is that a shapeshifter with potential fine trol over her form influence her own growth, which we believe you have done actally. There's some specution involved, but it seems to fit what we know about you."

  "Okay," Fuyuko said, uain how this was going to rete to training.

  Kazue took an unneeded deep breath before her illusion tinued, "Here's what we think happened. You were in a stressful situation and didn't want to grow up in order to stay safe, and then you had your first blood. This increased your stress about growing up but also mentally added your cycle to your image of who you were. And you believed that you were supposed to get taller so that still happened despite girls usually not growing much after their first blood. But your desire to remain seen as a child suppressed other traits of growing up. Are you with me so far?"

  After a moment of thinking, Fuyuko hough she wasirely fortable with where this seemed to be going.

  "Good. If that's what you've done subsciously, then with scious effort not only you undo it, you sculpt your body as you tio mature." Kazue gri her. "And I think we kly what you want."

  "I ? You do?" Fuyuko asked, trying to get a grip on this idea.

  "Yes. It requires both fine trol over your shape-shifting, which I cked when I was younger, and a certain amount of dedication to this specific effect. For example, Shizoku could be training her body to grow taller, but the amount of mental effort involved would take away from developing her magical skills. Plus, I think she likes that Derek is going to be taller than her so she has even less motivation now. For you, the training meshes with your physical training as it involves awareness of your body. And you seemed very envious of this form." Kazue's image shrank to make room for a new illusion.

  It was of Fuyuko, though not as she was now. This version was older, a little taller, and with a figure that was a atch to the one Mordecai's elven shape had. Fuyuko could see why this training wao be in private, especially with how little clothing the image had. "You're sayin' that I look like that?"

  "Yep!" Kazue beamed at her. "I tweaked the base design a little to trim down. Mordecai's form was built not only to be athletic but to eain via her dang. And, well, trust me when I say that while they might be o look at, these things get in the way. A lot. And you have a talent for stealth. So unless you are pnning on addiress to your repertoire, I thought fitting into tight spaces might be a higher priority."

  Seductress? Eww, no. She wao be pretty like that, but she didn't want to show off. Or, well, not like that at least. "Um, that seems like it might be iing, but what does this trainin' involve?" Fuyuko asked as much to ighe fusion her flict stirred up as to get the training started.

  "Well," Kazue replied, "we're going to want to gh this form iail to make sure that it's everything you want. Once we do that, I will create several holograms in different poses so that you have images to focus aate on. To secure privacy, the gemstohat will create these images will only work in your room, with the door closed, and while you are alone. Once we have the images, you get to start image training. There are two parts to this: One is just meditating on the form you want, so you sit here alone and do that. I'm not great at meditation myself, but I guide you through the basics. Mordecai could teach you of course, but I think on this subject you'd rather not have him directly involved."

  It took Fuyuko a moment to think about it, and then she abruptly shook her head and looked down at her p, her hair falling down to hide her face. "No," she muttered, "I mean, I know he wouldn't care or anythin', but, just, no. That would be too embarrasin'." Given how hot her ears were feeling, she retty certain they'd be turning as red as her cheeks. The idea of any guy seeing those images made her want to sink into the floor.

  "That's what I thought," Kazue said with a gentle smile. "Well, when we're done here, yoing to go meet Mordecai in the arena. We'll o discuss another matter together, and after that, you work on the part. He'll go into the details, but you will o try and hold the image in your head while you are doing other stuff, especially while you are practig your shape-shifting."

  "Alright," Fuyuko said as she pulled her thoughts together, "so I meditate to get the image, then I practice while trying ta hold the image. And that part is also going ta be my other training."

  "Right. Now the first question is, do you want to develop a tail in your base form? It's needed for bance when you beore wolf-like, but I am not sure how much it would help you outside of that. And usune, you don't have power associated with your tail."

  Fuyuko hadn't sidered that as a possibility. She remembered her father had one, mostly because she had a hazy memory of grabbing it once when she was younger and how it made him yelp. She couldn't remember if her mother didn't have one or was just better at keepiail out of the reach of a little kid. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like it could be inve most of the time, and she'd have to relearn her sense of bance. "Nah, I don't think so."

  Kazue nodded. "Okay, well, let's get into the details then. And remember, this is a long-term process. The only visible differeween this and just growing up is that you get to influehe results." The two of them spent over an hour paring and trasting every bit of differeween Fuyuko and the image of what she could be, right down to examining every differen muscle tone and bulk, and for the most part, she was happy with what Kazue had structed.

  Ohey agreed on the final ges, Fuyuko spent until lunch time practig meditation. After lunch, she went out to the Arena to find Mordecai. On her way, she passed by Bellona overseeing marg drills with the kobolds and the bunkin. The kobolds were spread out through the bunkin formations; Bellona said this was to keep them from learning bad habits from each other. Fuyuko could attest that the kobolds warriors were good at fighting, better tha least, but they seemed to not be very good at soldiering, and Bellona wahem to learn that too.

  For the most part, Mordecai and Kazue seemed to have turhat sort of training over to Bellona. Not that the orc champion was g in the warrior departmeher. Fuyuko grimaced as she remembered their st sparring session. Being taller did not mean being stronger, and that woman hit like a flying boulder. Lesson learned: do not try to parry even a wooden axe when wielded by someone like that. Defleg only worked if she was mostly out of the way first, and blog had no ce of w, not even with both daggers. Fuyuko had broken an arm trying and Bellona had cursed her out for being an idiot even while healing the arm. Hearing insults mixed into a healing prayer was a new experie least.

  Shaking off the thought, she finished making her way to where Mordecai waited. "Hello. Um, Kazue said you had something to talk about before training?"

  He nodded and said, "Yes. Well, a few things really. The first is to resolve something I had inteo wait on until you had more time to get to know Deidre. I know what I did to capture her didn't sit well with you, nor should it have. So I'd like to start with asking you how Deidre seems to be taking it, and how you feel about the situation now."

  Fuyuko frowned as she thought about it. That was one lesson that Mordecai had taught her early; if she had time to think about an ao a difficult or important question, she should take that time. After a while she said, "Deidre seems sort of tent, I think. At least, she doesn't seem ta be mad at you. She set at first because it was like when her core was ensved, so of course she reacted badly. And it had ta have hurt. But she doesn't really want to work for the Puritasi, she knows there was no other way ta stop her, and ya only what you had to ta make sure she couldn't hurt anyone. As fer how I feel," she took a deep breathe before she tinued, "thinking about it still makes me a little sick. It was horrible to see and hear. But I also know you didn't do it to be mean. It was a bad choice, but all the other choices were worse. So, I'm not upset with you anymore, and I'm sorry I was to begin with."

  Mordecai drew her down for a brief hug. "Thank you, and you have nothing to be sorry about. Your rea was the correct rea to have. You don't ever have to be sorry for being upset over something like that." He stepped back with a smile. "I o make sure there were no bad feelings before this part." Two illusions appeared oher side of him. One was of Kazue, only she had wings like a pixie but rger. The other one was Moriko, but where Kazue's illusion was standing on the ground, Moriko's image looked like she was floating.

  "Thanks to the events of st night, I now also bear the unfortule of Faerie King, with Moriko and Kazue gaining the title of Faerie Queen. These are the ges wrought on our true forms." He pointed briefly at his eyes, drawitention to their color. While most of his iris was still gold, it had an outer ring of emerald green and an inner ring of ruby red. "Thanks to asses fic when it es to faerie magic, this has spread out and impacted those with close enough es to us, especially to my desdants. After all, the desdants of a faerie king are clearly fey-touched people at the least. Never mind the little matter of when he became a faerie king."

  He sighed and shook his head. "I'm just hoping it doesn't backtrack up to parents. Akahana will kill me if she's sprouted vines or something. Anyway, as our tractor, you are now a faerie knight, which is a type of mortal servant to a Faerie King or Queen. This doesn't affeuch immediately, but it does mark you for those who tell and act as a boon uhe right circumstances. You also build that power. But there's another option." He paused and waited.

  Fuyuko took that time to process what he'd just said. Being a faerie knight sounded kind of badass, but faeries were supposed to be all sorts of trouble. Of course, if you were already oeam, maybe it wouldn't be as bad. Wait. "Does this mean I have to start calling you 'Your Majesty' and stuff?"

  He shook his head. "No, I don't want to deal with that any more than I have to. And thankfully faerie protocol is a bit different, Lord and Lady be used even for Kings and Queens in most circumstahat sort of alss up what we wao ask you. I may not have wahis power, but I will at least take advantage of what is avaible to me, and I would like to share a portion of it, if you want. We make you more than a Faerie Knight, but this would be a lot less revocable if you ged your mind. The three of us could adopt you."

  She froze at the thought. Initially, it was from shock at the idea of being pletely adopted by them instead of being their ward. Then she realized the implicatioually, she mao choke out, "I'd be a Faerie Princess?!"

  "Exactly," he replied. "Which, to be clear, would e with its own side effects as well as perks. The most obvious drawback is losing the ability to lie. Clever w work around that, but only to aent. You would also o be very careful about promises and oaths. On the plus side, as this will involve deliberation and I prepare, I should be able to tweak your maion of power to suit you. Oh, and one more thing you should be aware of; thanks to Carmil's oath that thrust this domain onto us, she also made the faerie magic decide that she was our adoptive daughter. If you accept being adopted, you get her as an adoptive sister."

  Fuyuko didn't like lying muyway, so the first part didn't seem like a really big loss. Thinking of Carmil as a sister oher hand, well, that was a weird idea. "Ya aren't hard-sellin' the idea here," Fuyuko said.

  "Aside from not wanting to pressure you in general, it's important that you only do this if you want to," he replied. "So I am making sure you know what you might be walking into. I don't want there to be as. You are old enough that without something specific for you to gain from being adopted, having you as our rovides as much as being adopted. But title ianeeds adoption, both in mortal w and faerie w."

  A thought occurred to her and Fuyuko asked, "Wait, so, ya have ta tell the truth all the time now too?"

  Mordecai sighed at that. "Unfortunately, yes. I be tricky with w, but as a priest of Ozuran, that is not something I should do unless it is truly needed, not just because I want to wiggle out of something. I am not, however, required to answer a giveion if I don't want to."

  "How do all the little fairies get away with telling all those stories as if they were all true then?"

  He smiled and replied, "Their grasp oy is a bit loose. At the time they are telling a story, they believe it to be true. It is the truth as you know and uand it, not universal and objective truth."

  That was sort of weird, but that also sounded a lot like Li. She suppressed a giggle at that thought, then grew more somber as she sidered the offer in front of her once more. "I think I am going to accept, but, I want to know something else. What do you think the ces are that the Puritasi are involved in what happeo my parents?"

  Mordecai sidered the question for a moment. "It is possible; your heritage is something that they would dislike, but I don't know enough to rule out other possibilities. I think I have a feeling for where this question leads. Fuyuko, I don't have any issue with well-deserved vengeance, but at the same time, I am an example of how much a ing vengeance lead you astray. If you want to use this as an opportunity to find your parents' killers and deal with them, I will help only within reason. I do not want to see my mistakes repeated, even if at a smaller scale."

  She frow that, it wasly what she'd wao hear, though she supposed his response was sort of dad-like. If she took this offer, he would bee her adoptive father, so that might be appropriate. "I am guessing that as my king and adoptive father, you'd have the ability ta reign me in if ya thought ya o." He nodded a firmation and she chewed on that thought for a bit more. Finally, she asked in a soft voice, "So, truth-bound Fairy-King, how do ya feel about me?" Asking that made her nervous, but she felt it was an important question.

  Mordecai looked pleased as he responded, "A wise question, and a yered answer. When you first arrived here, I cared simply because of your situation and I was willing to help because you were in need. I started to get to know you when we walked dowh together, and the more I have learhe more I like you. I care for you and feel a strong fatherly affe. The liween affe and familial love is a blurry one, so I am not going to try to define anything more detailed that that. However, I only see my affe for you growing iure. "

  Kazue's voice spoke inside Fuyuko's mind, "I feel the same way, though I think of you more sisterly than maternally. But I want to protect you and help you ahere for you the same way. Um, Moriko 't really say that, since you guys haven't met yet, but she says she likes what we've told her about you and she wants to add you to her colle of younger siblings."

  Oh yeah, she'd met two of Moriko's siblings. And she'd really liked her parents too. Fuyuko felt an urge to cry at the sudden welling of emotions and she forced it down, managing to just sniff once before she said, "Yeah, well, I like you guys too." She cleared her throat and asked, "So, what do we have to do to make this happen?"

  Zagaroth