It was Edward who called out in response. “Hey Julie!”

  James finally had a name for the overseer who’d helped with Charlie.

  “That’s Vern. She now belongs to our friend James here. A budding Bond familiar expert.” Edward continued.

  James anticipated being asked about Charlie, so summoned her out, Squire too for good measure.

  Both appeared in a flash of light, buffed due to their cards being used.

  Julie took a step back, shock plastered on her face. She then turned on James in anger.

  “What do you think you are doing to that poor Squirrel!”

  The area, which hadn’t quite gone silent after the wyvern reveal, went dead quiet at the outburst.

  James’s heart sank.

  Squire ran up to Julie and started chittering at her in her own version of anger. She didn’t lash out though.

  Julie backed up, though there were growls from a number of dogs nearby in her defence.

  “Yes, I know you want this too.” she paused. “Yes, your new scales are shiny. Yes, you look very regal with your elongated, dragon-like body. You can fly now? That’s fantastic. Now can I have a word in private with your bond?”

  Squire backed off and ran back to James’s shoulder perch.

  “Everyone get back to your work. I’ll be in my office. You, James, come with me” she spoke as if he had absolutely no choice in the matter.

  “For now, leave your wyvern over there,” she said, pointing at the compound back wall where other caged beasts were being placed.

  “Actually no, Jason,” she called out. A burly man lifted his head from inspecting a horse’s hoof. “Can you take care of that? Ensure an apprentice stables their horses as well. Come on you three.”

  She led the way through the stables into the Guild. Two doors in they turned and climbed some steps that took them above the stables to a room overlooking the yard.

  He could see where Vern was being positioned against the wall by four big looking men.

  The room appeared to be some sort of office and storage room combined as there were plenty of leather scraps around. There were still signs of looting though, indents where large chests had once sat.

  Before Julie had a chance to speak again Edward spoke up.

  “Welcome back Jules! Where’ve you been?”

  Julie shut the door and motioned to the stools arranged around a small table.

  “As is standard for a dungeon break, we evacuated early towards Stretholm. We got word of the successful defence of the city and returned.” She explained.

  “Oh! That’s great. We assumed you’d gotten mixed up in Anne's venture to the dungeon, or Darneath’s raid on the Guild.” Edward said.

  James didn’t counter him, and it was nice coming from someone else for a change. Edward clearly knew Julie well and James was more than happy for him to lead.

  “Fortunately, no. I’ve been brought up to speed on that bastard as well.”

  The anger flared again.

  “Can you dismiss or send away your familiars?” she said motioning to Squire and Charlie.

  James did so, then a moment later they returned of their own volition, noticeably less buff. Squire still had the appearance of a Drake…

  James had a feeling that that was bad.

  “You seem to see the problem now. How long has it been since you applied the Aspect?” Julie said.

  James had seen no reason to remove it.

  “Yesterday morning”

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  “And have you tried removing it?” she prompted, leading him on.

  “No. She loves it so I didn’t see the harm.”

  “Try to remove it now, we’ll wait”

  James didn’t like giving away that he was vulnerable during the changes but did as asked. He got off the stool and sat cross legged, back against the wall. Then he jumped into Commander’s Space.

  Squire joined him and immediately started chattering, almost begging him not to remove it.

  Was this what Julie was warning about?

  James did something he’d never done before. He walked into Squire’s Retreat, with Squire following, then stepped back out and closed the door behind him. He probably wouldn’t be able to pull that trick again, not after the look of surprise on her face. The flash of betrayal on her face as the door closed.

  He then pulled up her card and tried to remove “On Bond” from the trigger slot.

  System Message. Drake Aspect cannot be removed until transition is completed.

  “Bloody hell!”

  He checked the Drake Essence that he had. There were still 21 Essence left. He wasn’t spending Essence for the transformation.

  James tried pushing another trigger on the slot and it wouldn’t budge.

  He released Squire again, who gave him an earful, then dropped out of Commander’s Space.

  Julie had a look on her face that said ‘See!’

  James went through a range of emotions. Shock, guilt, and concern, before pushing those away for practicality.

  “The system won’t allow me to remove it,” he said ashamedly to the room.

  Julie took a deep breath.

  I… suppose it’s okay.” She said resignedly. “It could have been worse”

  James jumped on that. “Yeah, I knew it was a bad idea to use undead Essence or Undead Aspects”

  Julie went pale. “Why do you have Undead Aspect?”

  “I got it as part of a reward for being the raid leader when defeating the Elite Drake which was the last wave of the dungeon break. It’s where I got the Drake Aspect from as well.”

  “Have you used it at all, like on anything or for anything?” She was still pale.

  “No I haven’t. The system keeps on throwing me opportunities to do so but… where I’m from we have tales of what happens when you play with or use undead. Most of them involve losing your soul.”

  “Soul?” she asked.

  “Spirit”

  “Ahh right” colour was returning to her face.

  “You should never, ever apply that to one of your bonds. Anything with undead gets ‘the hunger’. Eventually you would get it too.”

  “Okay, so Squire here is consuming your Drake Aspect. She’s…” James interrupted.

  “Consuming? What?”

  “Well yes. This is a permanent change. You are applying whatever rarity of the Aspect you unlocked into her fundamental makeup, forever. Of course it’s being consumed.”

  “Rare,” James said without thinking.

  “Oh! Wow! Okay then. Well I retract my reservations. That’s a gift beyond measure for little Squire.” Julie actually looked excited now. “Her chances of surviving that are much better.”

  “Surviving! What now?”

  Squire seemed to understand as well and was looking on intently.

  ‘Yes, surviving. You’ve essentially kicked off an evolution for Squire. So far it appears to be taking quite well. There’s known cases where an existing Aspect is overwritten and they can lose critical internal survival consistency. That’s usually when organs fail and there’s no amount of healing that will fix that.”

  “What are her odds?”

  “I don’t know. To my knowledge you are the first person to ever use such a valuable Aspect on a squirrel.”

  James’s gamer brain condemned him. He’d wasted a rare opportunity on a basic creature. This is where his bond brain would be okay with it right? Nope, that brain was condemning him for negligently risking his Bond’s life.

  “Is… Is there a way to stop or even reverse the process?”

  “Yes, of course. But Squire would die.” Julie said wryly.

  “I didn’t think I needed to say this but without Squire dying?”

  “No. That’s a one way street.”

  “Wait.. Is there something I can do, what do I have to look out for?”

  “Good point, no, nothing you can do but watch and encourage her. She’s becoming more draconic. You are going to need to indulge and curb some tendencies. Squirrel’s already like to hoard nuts. It’s almost certainly going to be her primary Draconic tendency, hoarding. If you let her fight as well then look out for wrath. She may also become protective of what considers her territory. And James… She’s going to gain a level of Draconic Intelligence.”

  When he looked blankly at her she continued.

  “Most creatures with a high Mind stat would be better considered off as having a high cunning. The system doesn’t present it to us that way but that’s more what it is. For Sentient creatures, or creatures that will eventually gain sentience, that stops being the case.”

  “So.. you are saying Squire is going to become sentient?”

  “Not at first no. But when you level to Silver and your Bond follows suit. Yes.” Julie looked at him to see if he understood what that meant.

  James didn’t, but all of this was becoming too much too quickly.

  “We’ll talk when you are ready. Unfortunately, we have something else to discuss. I think you called her Vern? Why Vern?”

  James burst out laughing. It was a manic, self deprecating laugh but he could not stop.

  Julie did a double take, assessed her own words then frowned.

  James kept on laughing hysterically.

  Edward seemed to get it as well and started laughing.

  “Why Vern!” Edward said, kicking his laughter into hiccups.

  An inarticulate, high-pitched squeal of half-formed words escaped James’s mouth as he tried to say, “That’s why— that, and my… wait—no—trait!”

  Julie was not completely incapable of seeing the humour but remained unimpressed. She just talked over the top.

  “I know how to look after a wyvern and will teach you as well. I had to pay Darneath for the information so I’ll be passing the cost onto you… with interest.”

  He stopped laughing, gasping a few times to get his breath back.

  “For now I’ll look after her and send you the bill. We’ll talk more on that when we’ve settled back in. I’ll be charging you for stabling your horses as well. Bond?”

  James nodded, rubbing tears out of his eyes.

  “How many Bonds is the system letting you have!”

  James opened his mouth to speak but Julie interrupted.

  “No, I don’t want to know. Bring Squire past every day for a checkup. Also, if you ever use that Undead Aspect on a bond, I’ll post the quest to kill you personally.”

  James no longer felt like laughing.