They ate and talked, though Hakohnzo continued to sleep. Albion's cooking was very good, and Caen made sure to voice that several times during the meal. Good food deserved praise.

  A beautiful time construct hung in the corner of Caen's field of vision. He'd connected to Guinevere, linked her Dream-guarding affinity with his, and cast the spell. It was currently a few minutes past 1 in the morning.

  The siblings alternated between talking about their father and teasing Guinevere for her alias ‘Black’, which Zeris had revealed amidst a fit of giggles.

  [What's your actual surname, though?] Zeris asked.

  [Hughes-Richardson] Guinevere sent as she chewed her food. [Don't look at me like that. My parents are Valiants, and I'd rather not draw anyone's attention.]

  [And 'Black' is exactly the kind of name you use when you're trying to be stealthy,] Albion sent, laughing. [You nailed it!]

  They continued to tease her as Caen watched Hakohnzo. Its blue skin was wrapped around Nimueh, and the rest of its body just swayed smoothly in mid-air. Caen was fascinated by this. He'd tried to connect to the serpent before, but hadn’t so much as perceived its soul structure.

  [It is rude to stare,] a scratchy and alien voice said in Caen's mind as Hakohnzo's eyes opened to stare at him.

  Caen flinched so hard he almost dropped his plate.

  The siblings and Zeris burst out into laughter.

  [She's such a prankster,] Nimue said to Caen as she patted the serpent's head. [Zeris got quite a fright, too.]

  [You Saffronan creatures never expect those of other worlds to be capable of speech, much less your local dialect], Hakohnzo sent.

  A thousand questions filled Caen's mind, but he asked one. [Are you speaking Thermish right now?] He hadn't considered the possibility that this awakened creature might be fluent in Saffronan languages.

  [Not at all,] Hakohnzo said with a trace of mirth.

  [The telepathic link relays intent regardless of language,] said Caen in realization. He'd sent those words just now in Olden Vishic.

  [Exactly,] said the siblings and Hakohnzo at once. They'd understood him clearly.

  Caen tried to keep his excitement off his face. He was very happy that they hadn’t died in the tunnels. They chatted some more as they cleaned up after themselves, Albion talking to them about the sacrifices he'd made to come save his sister, and Nimue pointing out how he'd just been attending parties. They moved back into the tent, which had room enough for all six of them. As the night wore on, there was a brief lull in conversation.

  [Are you bonded to each other?] Caen asked Nimue and Hakohnzo just to confirm. He'd assumed they were.

  [Three years bonded, yes,] Nimue sent, smiling.

  Caen had once been fascinated with the idea of getting a contracted bond. But such things were closed off to abjects. Having a rating of nothing less than 5 on the Peilker Scale was the bare minimum. Information about Contract magic was difficult to find, but most resources Caen had consulted claimed that there was a fundamental accord necessary for such a relationship to be magically established in the first place.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  [Where did you meet?] Zeris asked.

  [Well, it's… not a Plane you'd have heard about. I was doing some extended camping, and then I came across her. I realized very quickly that we were going to be friends.]

  [After I tried to eat you, that is,] Hakohnzo said.

  “Okay, now that's a story I'd like to hear,” Zeris said, her eyes lighting up.

  [Such a gossip,] Guinevere quipped.

  Caen squinted at both of them, but redirected his attention to Nimue and Hakohnzo. [You said you… ‘realized’. How?] he asked. This was something he had never been able to find in all his previous searches. Magical bonds involved… something that wasn't widely known, but Caen had no idea what exactly this was.

  Nimue shrugged. [It takes a lot of rapport, for one. But that part was easy because, well, I cheated. Using my bloodline, I mean. Communicating with Hakohnzo was easy. Everything fell into place from there.]

  [All it takes is… getting along?] Caen asked. That seemed a little too easy.

  [I mean,] she scratched the side of her face. [Yeah. There was a binding ritual, which I was able to conduct by myself. That part wasn't too complicated since we both have what you might call a uh propensity for Binding magic. Yeah. Forming Contracted bonds is not that hard, honestly. Just needs a little bit of, you know, good fortune.]

  [That ritual took days, however,] Hakohnzo said.

  Nimue laughed. [It's not really a ritual if it doesn't take long to execute.]

  [Well! It's getting late,] Albion said. [And Nimmy and I are supposed to be out of here at the crack of dawn.]

  They had mentioned earlier, while they ate, that they'd be leaving today. It was almost 4 in the morning right now.

  Caen stood up from the cushion he'd been sitting on. [I think I need to go take a bath. And maybe go for a walk.]

  [A walk that might accidentally lead you into the Plane, I'm sure,] Zeris replied with a knowing smile.

  [I'm not a Diviner,] Caen said, smiling back. [I can't tell the future.]

  Zeris chuckled. [Well, don’t fall into any tunnels.]

  Caen thanked Nimue and Albion once again for the rescue and kind hospitality, which they brushed aside good-naturedly. He wished them well on their trip back.

  [I'll be straining your hospitality a bit longer, if you don't mind,] Zeris said to them.

  [And I'm going to grab as much sleep as I can,] Guinevere said. [The cots here are terrible. Nimmy, won't you give your beloved sister a cushion?]

  Nimue laughed. [I may have dropped everything I was doing to come and rescue you, but I still don't love you enough to give you any of my camping equipment.]

  As they argued, Caen grabbed his gear, bag of holding, and weapons, all of which had been placed in a pile by the tent entrance.

  The uncomfortably warm night air had gotten cooler. Caen made his way down to the bathhouse. On his way there, he fetched several buckets of water using his glaive in a manner that would have made Aunt Vensha scowl.

  As he cleaned his gear, his mind turned over everything Nimue had said about Contracted bonds. She'd spoken about rapport and getting along. Caen had assumed that there was more to it than that, and maybe there was. But a plan was already forming in his mind. He would have to speak to Mafrolem later.

  Half an hour later, he'd washed up—though he worked extra hard to get all the grime and blood discoloring his white hair out—and put on fresh clothes from his bag of holding. Vensha had loaned him these weeks ago. He geared up, too.

  Caen broke off a branch with leaves attached to it and foraged for some plant tendrils as well as a stiff, woody vine. He made his way into the Odaton-plane Plane. This late at night, the camp was quiet, more so the Courtyard and the front zone of the Plane. Very few people were out here.

  In a reversal of what he normally did here, Caen sat with his back to an awakened tree stump and fixed his gaze on the ever-night sky of the Plane. Using touch alone, he connected to the tree behind him. Its soul structure bloomed… not quite in his mind's eye. He could sort of see it at the back of his vision. It was marvelously disorienting. He conformed his Flora affinity cluster to the tree's own in mere seconds.

  Caen took out his grimoire and flipped through to the section with slightly more complicated Flora magic spells, most of which were of the third elevation.

  First, I'll adapt these, and then I'll go bother some trees.