Before I could even begin speaking and trying to gain the upper hand in the negotiations that would follow, Myrsky rushed downward through the air, saying, and began eating the dragon heart I had prepared before me.

  She didn’t even notice Elowen or the floating eyeball in the corner of the room, still caught in their bonding.

  But it didn’t matter. I allowed her to eat in peace as I slowly moved through the pool, gathering the seeds and tossing them through the Gate, watching the Quartz and the sulfuric ore crumble into dust and follow after them.

  By the time Myrsky finished the heart, I leaned forward and grabbed the Soulster fruit, holding it in my hand as she flew back toward my face.

  I could have spoken with her inside my head, but I found it… odd. Uncanny, in a way. So instead, I whispered.

  “So, how was the heart?”

  she replied straight into my head, clearly satisfied.

  “Does that mean you accept my earlier terms?”

  “That you did,” I sighed.

  Hearing someone else giggle inside your head ought to qualify as schizophrenia in some way. However, having gold-digging schizophrenia ought to be worse… I think. Still, despite that, things looked promising so far.

  Myrsky didn’t look weak, and that was just another reason to try harder. But I couldn’t help wondering if she was the beast Valen had in the novel.

  Considering that the elements of her magic matched Valen’s, it was safe to assume so… yet the gender-swapped eyeball still made me question things.

  An involuntary sigh escaped me as I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, I nodded toward the Wyrm.

  “Let’s start, then.”

  It took her ten minutes to look at my soul as I stood there, meditating with my eyes closed, sweating buckets at the anxiety of what this beast was going to see.

  she finally said.

  Imagine being capable of unsettling a Feralium beast enough to make her sound uncertain.

  Bloody incredible.

  “What?” I asked, immediately worried. “What did you see?”

  she replied casually.

  “No, no,” I whispered. “You don’t get to do that. Tell me. Was it that bad?”

  …What in God’s name did this thing see??

  And hold on, now. Two hundred? One of those costs over two hundred gold. You know how much that is? The equivalent of two thousand bucks back on Earth! Each! That’s four hundred thousand, miss!

  “Twenty.”

  she gasped, genuinely horrified.

  “And what happened to the whole ‘it’s too late to go back now’ thing?” I asked, mimicking her earlier giggle. “Thirty.”

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  “Fifty.”

  “Seventy.”

  she stammered.

  “Eighty,” I replied, not buying her bluff.

  “Fine… ninety.”

  Well, say something goddamnit, why the silence?

  Was she really not bluffing? Did she leave? No… I felt her breath down the tip of my nose. She was still here.

  “Fine,” I muttered, not trying to risk having her leave. “A hundred.”

  “But...”

  she groaned like an old woman.

  “I expect gifts,” I said flatly. “Because the gold required to feed you would’ve bought me a twenty-thousand-man army.”

  She laughed softly at my words as if I had uttered some silly joke.

  Now was music to my ears.

  “Perfect,” I smiled, eyes still closed. “Let’s begin then, shall we?”

  “Wait! Hold on,” I cut in. “You sounded pretty confident there, not gonna lie. But take a look to our right. See that eyeball? Yeah? Could you defeat it at the height of your power?”

  Great. Just what I wanted to hear.

  “...Alright. Let’s begin.”

  Despite the depressive reply to my last question, the rest of the bonding process went brilliantly, to the point that I was somewhat confident in my safety for the time being, after we agreed on everything, and we shared the Soulster fruit.

  All that still needed to happen now was for a few days to pass so that the Corridor between Myrsky and me could stabilize fully. At that time, I could slowly start getting the hang of this magic thing with her help.

  But I have to say, I felt great. Her powers were profound, fascinating, and capable of many great things. It even made me agree with her earlier point.

  Once she was fully grown and once I was fully capable of controlling her magic to the best of my abilities, then I would really not need an army for my theoretical battles.

  Even Valen’s body was pleased with this, as all the pain that the bastard was causing during the negotiation had subsided more and more with each gift Myrsky gave me.

  But just as I was about to wake from my bonding, a whisper drew my attention.

  “What an interesting beast, don’t you agree, Dahlia?” Elowen asked, before falling silent for a few seconds, then speaking again as if replying to herself, “...Yeah. I know.”

  Only then did it dawn on me that she was most likely speaking with her Angel, hearing her words inside her head as I did.

  But, with the bonding over, I couldn’t just sit there any longer. Time was of the essence, and I needed to return to the estate as soon as possible, so I opened my eyes.

  The moment I did, Elowen stood a few feet away from me, crouching and looking at me with heavy intent.

  It was too late to pretend otherwise, so she didn’t even more when she saw me turn to her.

  “How did it go?” she asked.

  Before I replied to her, I looked at Myrsky’s form as she swam to the air toward me, coiling her body along my neck, placing her small head on my right shoulder.

  However, before I could ask Myrsky what she was doing, she told me herself.

  “It went great,” I replied to Elowen, raising my right hand and gently petting Myrsky’s head with one of my fingers, “Her name is Myrsky.”

  “And hers is Dahlia,” Elowen replied.

  Looking at the angel even closer than before made my skin prickle. That creature was horror incarnate. Even more so now that she looked at me as if she knew all that Valen did to Elowen.

  And it was certain that she did, so from the very start, this floating eyeball and I were on bad terms.

  Nevertheless, I opened my mouth, trying to speak, but just as I was about to, the Beast Shaman from before came back into the room.

  “Oh my…” he muttered, eyes wide at our Feralium beasts, not even noticing the lesser phoenix as it jumped from his hand and took off, awkwardly sprinting away after it looked at the angel near Elowen’s shoulder.

  Truthfully, up until this point, that phoenix was the most relatable thing this world offered me so far, for I, too, wanted to sprint away from that thing.

  Instead, knowing I could not, I turned to the Shaman. “All went well on our side.”

  “Clearly,” the man nodded, still baffled, before walking deeper inside the room, making the Sign of the Beast with his hand, “My Lord, My Lady, congratulations. May the Feralium Beasts and the Goddesses care for you as you would for your new companions.”

  His words were both congratulations and warnings.

  Not caring for a Feralium beast, besides the poor relation with the beast itself, constituted a crime against a pillar of the society of this world and against the world itself.

  Valen didn’t listen to that warning the first time, and he paid the price for it.

  I will.

  “Well then, Beast Shaman,” I groaned, getting to my numbed feet. “Thank you for having us.”

  “No,” he shook his head. “Thank you for showing me such… extraordinary beings.”

  And extraordinary they were, indeed. Well, mine was prettier, too, but I didn’t say that.

  Instead, I stayed silent while Elowen chattered with the Beast Shaman as we left the balcony, making our way through the Temple toward the exit, where by now, the crowds from earlier had vanished.

  We reunited with our guards, bid the Shaman farewell, and stepped into the carriage. With the beasts at our side, we descended from the peak of the mountain, leaving the Temple, the Conclave Feralium, and the day’s chaos behind us.