“It’s going to be a bad winter,” Elaria cheerfully said, as they all sat down in the greeting room where hot chocolate and cookies awaited them. “Maybe even a 3-band winter!”

  She didn’t seem too broken up about that near-disastrous forecast.

  Mark asked, “3-bands means three auroras in the sky instead of the 5 that are up there right now?”

  “Correct! Expect lows in the -20s, or more.” Elaria moved on, “So did either of you have any strange dreams that felt more real than usual, lately?”

  Mark shook his head. “Not that I can remember.”

  Isoko said, “No, ma’am.”

  Elaria’s good cheer took a hit. “Ah… I expected something after the goblin hunt. Some sort of breakthrough. You two did quite a good showing there…” And then she put away her concern and smiled, saying, “When it happens it happens. Maybe you both had a dream and you didn’t remember it. If you get repeated dreams, then that is likely a mapping dream. It might not happen every night, and mapping dreams tend to border normal dreams, so there’s a lot of drifting back and forth. With time and practice, you’ll be able to shift into your map with some light meditation. Not today, though!” She stood up. “Today we do more astral stretching, and I’ll show you the beginner forms. You’ll recognize some of the forms more as stances and various other warrior things, I am sure…”

  The three of them passed the ‘butler’, Sekail, on the way to the workout zone below the house. The butler was obviously not the butler, being as he was entirely too ferocious looking and defensive of Elaria, but he acted and dressed like a butler, so that’s what he was… probably.

  His presence reminded Mark that House Sacredcut had knights, and how Valen Manor had no guards, or ‘knights’, at all. Maybe they just didn’t need them?

  As they descended the stairs to the open areas below the house, Mark asked, “Why do the Sacredcuts have knights, but you don’t? A lot of the noble houses have knights, actually. But Sekail is the only one you have here?”

  “Mark,” Isoko whispered, as she tried not to cringe too much—

  But Elaria just chuckled as she stepped into the large open room, where weapons held on the walls like ensconced lights and the floor was bare stone. “We’re under sanction by the Empire for being dragonists, and have been for a long time. We may raise no armies and have no real power, but our bloodlines are tied to a lot of great workings in the Empire so they can’t get rid of us that easily. They need us alive for a lot of things. Now come! Raise your fists and let us stretch…”

  Mark got the distinct impression that he had stepped into a big issue, but Elaria didn’t want to talk about it. She had only answered Mark because… because of reasons. Probably a lot of reasons.

  Astral body stretching was pretty simple, and Mark had been doing it outside of Elaria’s directed instruction for the last several days. Push all the way up, then down, left then right, forward then backward. And then do it again and again. Mark had a range of about 500 to 600 meters when he went really far with it, and that hadn’t changed.

  It was still a physical workout, though.

  Elaria had Mark and Isoko hopping and punching, then kicking the air, and then doing stretches on the ground and against walls. Eventually, the normal stretches finished, and Elaria stood firm, her demeanor changing to something more solid. Mark was loose, but now he came to attention. Isoko did the same beside him.

  Elaria spoke, “We will now go back into the silent room, and you will try to withstand the silence and feel your Binding in the dark, and in the quiet.”

  Mark was soon sitting cross-legged on a pillow in the dark, in a room where the walls were made of grey foam pyramids. There was no sound at all except for the sounds of his own body. His gurgling guts. His pulsing heart. His breathing and soon enough, he thought he could even hear his hair grow. It was not a good sound.

  Rushing in the ears, pulsing in the body, twitches in the legs and arms that set everything into motion and made Mark feel like he was in the belly of something much larger than himself—

  “Out out out!” Mark got up, slammed the door open, and lurched into the hallway, breathing hard.

  Elaria was in the hallway, chatting with Isoko. They stopped talking and Elaria grinned as she saw Mark. “Too much?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re next, Isoko,” Elaria said.

  Isoko steeled herself and went into the room.

  The door clicked—

  Elaria asked, “So Isoko tells me that you’re looking for livium for an AI assistant?”

  Mark blinked a few times, trying to acclimate from the deep, silent dark, to a cheery conversation with a duchess who acted more like an aunt. He acclimated fast. Mark said, “Not a True AI, but one with a casing that is as solid as my own PL’s, so that I can maintain communication with the settlement or anywhere else I happen to be. I can’t TT like Isoko or other brawnies, and I might never be able to do that, so other solutions are needed.”

  Eliara nodded along, saying, “And the solution of a livium core for an AI is a good one. Very good, very old solution, and to the very same problem you’re having; of needing a dedicated communicator that doesn’t die out there when exposed to dangerous monsters.”

  Mark was confused. “Old solution?”

  “Thousands of years old!”

  … Well that couldn’t be right.

  “Do you know the history of the AIs? Where they come from?”

  Mark rapidly organized some thoughts, and said, “The AIs were what happened when old computing tech of the 1960’s on Earth met magic from Daihoon, and I think… The archmages of Daihoon did something to make the AIs better… Which I now assume is related to what you’re talking about. Livium came from Daihoon, then? With that, then the AIs became real people with vast powers. The City AIs. They were the oversight needed in the Reveal to find and categorize all the threats in various areas as the Veil ripped and tore and let everything through, going both ways. The City AIs gradually became the center defenses of many different powers.”

  Elaria waited.

  “Uh…” Mark continued, “The most famous City AI was Malaqua, of New Delhi, before the city was destroyed in the years of the Reveal by some cataclysm. Malaqua survived and he went on with Addashield and others through Endless Daihoon to reach Luna, the Moon, where Arakino, the City of Demons, lay. Once there they did a lot of things and Malaqua Ascended to become the Stone God, Warden of Demons, and thus ended the Reveal.”

  Elaria nodded. “Close enough. I would say they helped usher in the close of the Reveal. Not ‘ended’ it. It was some time between Malaqua’s Ascension to godhood and the rise of the Pantheon and the settling of the System into what it is today. But you got the major points, except for one, which… Well. Quite honestly I thought they still taught, but maybe they don’t? The story usually mentions something about how earthlings were scared of artificial intelligence, but the people of Daihoon only thought—”

  “Oh! Familiars! Right.”

  Elaria grinned. “Correct! Addashield was one of those archmages, actually, that didn’t think that AIs were anything to be fearful of. He named them familiars, and that is what they became.”

  “Yeah. I forgot, uh… I think I heard something about… That. And then, afterward, some Summoners and the AI consortium had some deals about… about a lot of stuff. So that Summoners don’t go around making AIs for just anyone. Something like that.”

  Elaria nodded a little as Mark spoke, then she said, “The existence of familiars stretches back thousands of years, but the recent advance in AI has allowed familiars to become something real. Something that isn’t just a reflection of the person using livium as a familiar core.

  “To cut short a great deal of magical history…

  “Some people can solidify soulstuff into crystal form. Not mana, which is like you with your adamantium mana, but actual soulstuff. Blank soulstuff. Anyone with sufficient training can make a soul crystal and then trap a soul inside, but livium is base soulstuff in crystal form. A blank slate, if you will. Usually the only people who can do this are Seers, but with great training a normal person can do it too. Do you know the difference between what we’d call a ‘Near’ and a ‘Far’?”

  “Yes,” Mark said. “Nears are pretty much everyone, with astral bodies that are connected to themselves. Fars are people who can move their astral body around outside of their own sphere of influence. They can split off parts of themselves and move them around far, far from their body.”

  “Correct,” Elaria said. “The livium cores made by Seers, Fars, or Summoners, can then be filled with the astral body of the user, to thus craft a familiar. Do you know what a familiar is? The stuff you might have seen in movies are not true familiars, though the idea of cats and mice and ravens being familiars is all very true. It’s a nuanced topic. Have you ever seen a real familiar?”

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  Mark shook his head. “Probably not.”

  Elaria grinned and chuckled. She nodded. “Probably not.” She added, “The historical ‘Familiar’ is a homunculus. A created thing, made of mud and bones and sinew and various bloods and bile and other fluids of the summoner, or Summoner. Familiars are complicated things, and can be created in any sort of shape. The shape of the familiar’s life will eventually become real, though. A cat familiar will become more and more of a cat. A human-shaped familiar, even if they are only half a meter tall to start with, will eventually become a real person. The cat will become a housecat or a tiger. The homunculus will grow to the size of a normal person. Eventually, somewhere along the way, the familiar, the true life, will split from the creator into a new life. Or they die. In the old times, familiars were used for a variety of menial or important tasks, from cleaning dishes to helping to cast spells, and the new familiars, the ones made of AIs and circuit boards, are much the same in that regard.”

  Helping to cast spells? Mark was all ears.

  “The new familiar is a thing of electronics and programmed life, with limits that are easily imposed and shapes that can be anything. They will not develop more and more in those initial directions unless those limiters are removed. Much safer. No need to worry about your cat familiar turning into a real thing in the middle of the night and then deciding it needs to eat you because you made it fight for its life and eat everything else all the time. That happened more often than you might think.

  “In the before times, familiars would almost always become real and cause problems due to mistreatment by their masters… Big Problems. Some of the most prominent monster lines can be traced back to a homunculus progenitor, and usually to a magefall. Dartdrakes, for one. Umbercats, for another. Nowadays, most familiars remain electronic lives, never achieving true sapience.” Elaria finished with, “Which is what you want, yes? The non sapient version?”

  “I do not want to have a person attached to my phone; yes. Just a secure way of communicating with others while I’m out in the field,” Mark said... But he was also interested in magic. “In the stories…” Mark began, though he wasn’t sure where he was going for a moment. And then he continued, “In the stories, familiars help with magic. And you just said… Can familiars actually help with magic?”

  Elaria smiled a little. “That’s the main use of familiars— Of course they have many uses. But the historical use was to help a mage cast a spell. Familiars, when they are properly used, can bring the mage directly into their binding, and can help the mage put together spells in some ways.” She took a breath. She said, “And that, right there, is the crux of why I am bringing all of this up. Demons do not have all the power when it comes to helping a mage make magic. Familiars are the non-demonic option for helping oneself to make magic. They’re also really good at talking to demons and ensuring that nothing happens to the practitioner.”

  … There was a lot there.

  Mark found himself worried about that last sentence, though. “Uh… Why include that last part—”

  “Remember when we spoke of forbidden soul warping magics, and you asked about Thrashtalon and Wilding and the Skillers of the Empire. I said that you, with your Union, could one day easily warp the souls of people, and that you should be sure never to do that.” Elaria said, “One must be informed of the bad things when they approach the bad things, so that they do not approach the bad things, and that is what is happening here.

  “I tell you that familiars are excellent shields to have when communicating with demons because every proper demonist cultist has a familiar these days. It has always been that way.” And then Elaria started listing things, “Inquisitors look into people who have familiars. Most people who have familiars hide them because people who know about familiars know how they’re properly used. There are rules and regulations regarding livium and the AIs are the only ones really getting around those rules because of who they are, as a people. An allied people, at that. Some of the only allies humans have, actually, so we nations of the world do a lot for them, as they do for us.” Then she finished with, “I’m glad you don’t know anyone with a familiar. If you had said ‘yes’ then I would have needed to do some investigation of my own, after giving you all of these proper warnings, because I know everyone who has a familiar in this settlement, and I know all of them are not cultists of Thrashtalon or the demons.”

  Mark felt like his eyes were open a little bit more today than they had been yesterday.

  Elaria saw Mark’s moment of learning, and then she added on a moment of terror, saying, “Now tell me true: Do you plan on using a familiar to talk to demons?”

  Mark felt the world almost sharpen. And then he focused. “… Not planning on it, no. But when they make me talk to them, then I need a shield against them. If a familiar can do that, then I need that functionality.”

  Elaria softened a little. She softly said, “Good. That’s an answer that falls well within the acceptable answers to my question. Sorry for putting you on the spot like that, but the people who hand out livium cores for familiars will do a lot worse.”

  … It sounded like she wanted Mark to have a familiar?

  But also… She was talking like it was a bad thing to have one?

  It felt like mixed messages.

  Mark asked, “So I should have one? Or… I still want one, but I shouldn’t want one?”

  “Well of course you should have a familiar! Just because they’re dangerous does not mean they are not useful; They’re very useful! The limited ones are pretty limited, though. Even a basic, real AI will help you to map your binding. You’ll run into the magical limits of a limited AI rather quickly, though. Just a forewarning: Don’t remove the limiter. Then you’re responsible for a person.”

  Mark caught something like… longing in Elaria’s vector. “Do you have a familiar?”

  Elaria smiled, though her vector was one of long ago loss. “I used to. He was murdered by the Empire in the cleanup after the Reveal, when the Imperial Family took all the power for themselves.”

  Mark had stepped into a soft landmine—

  Isoko slammed open the silent room and rushed out, saying, “I can’t do it anymore! I…” She looked at Mark and Elaria and saw something had happened. “What—” She decided not to ask questions.

  But then Elaria happily said, “I was telling Mark about familiars as demon-intermediaries, and how the livium core AI Mark wants is basically a familiar but by another name.” As Isoko’s eyes widened, Elaria turned to Mark. “House Valen can’t get a familiar. We’re forbidden from using them. If I were you, I would go and ask Marigold Metallic about that sort of thing. As a side note: Your banker has been wanting to talk to you about selling your adamantium and I think the Empire wants to buy. Could be a different source, but that is doubtful. There’s a lot of interesting things happening in the adamantium market these days!” She waved a hand. “But that’s for later! I have you for at least another 30 minutes and so we’re going to start the forms. You’re probably close enough to seeing your binding that you can use the forms, and if not, then you’ll need the forms anyway. The first ones are just more stretching, and…”

  What followed was an exercise in what Mark thought of as Chinese Dancing, but from Daihoon. He was sure it had a proper name, but all Elaria called it was formwork. Mark made an O-shape with his hands and he moved slowly left and right, and then he separated his hands and lifted his left foot as he balanced on his right and stretched out toward the right with both hands. He was supposed to stretch his astral body out in every direction of his limbs as he moved, too, which wasn’t that difficult, but Elaria kept telling him that if it was easy then he wasn’t stretching far enough. If he moved too fast then that was another wrong action. If he moved too slow then that was another mistake.

  Isoko was doing great, though.

  “Reminds me of Tai Chi,” Isoko said, balancing on the toes of her left foot as she leaned forward all the way and spread her arms wide, as she arched her right leg backward, in the air. “Mom and Dad were big into that growing up, and now I think I know why.”

  Mark faltered a little as he tried to hold the same pose, and he was not nearly horizontal with his chest enough, but he managed to hold most of the pose. For about 3 seconds.

  Elaria said, “Hold it there for another 10 seconds. 9, 8, 7… good very good— Straighten that back leg.”

  Mark straightened his back leg.

  He was sweating and tired and when the session ended he collapsed onto his ass on the ground, happy it was over, for now.

  Soon, both Mark and Isoko were at the front door and bowing to Elaria as they left, saying thanks.

  “If you don’t have repeating dreams by next week then maybe we need to find some truly terrifying monsters to send you against. I was so sure the goblins would help you get to the next level, but… Hmm. Next week.” Elaria added, “And be sure to talk to Marigold, and ask her about familiars!”

  Mark smiled a little. “I will, thank you.”