Teyva sat in her dimly lit chambers, her legs crossed beneath her as she continued her practice. She had been pushing for a while now, testing just how tightly she could pull her mana around her body. She wanted to see if she had hit her current cap on Mana Manipulation. She exhaled through her nostrils, ignoring the sensation of Queenie traipsing over her shoulder and up the side of her head and onto her scalp. The largest of her Mockeries peered out over the darkened room, paying close attention to the pile of gold coins in one corner. Queenie had been behaving strangely recently, her attitude to the other Mockeries becoming somewhat distant at times and almost obsessive at others.

Nephral sat in Teyva’s lap, basking in her aura. “Have you decided?” He asked cooly, peering up at her face.

“I’ll need all the advantages I can get,” Teyva said, “From what I know about the competition there’s no rules against using your aspects. The Azar respect power and capability.”

“Wise creatures,” Nephral murmured, “Then what abilities are you going to pick?”

Teyva broke her concentration and held out her hand, her [Bag of Holding] appearing in her palm. The inventory screen splashed across her vision. She took stock momentarily, making sure she remembered everything she had on her person.

She frowned at the skillbook, cursing Teyva Rani quietly before pulling out her [Aspect Shards]. They appeared on the ground in a line in front of her. She picked the first up, she could use all five at this level now that she had the Siren Aspect.

First was [Aspect of the Titan] of which she had the choice between [Summon Elemental] and [Titan Blooded III]

She selected [Summon Elemental] first, as she had promised herself she would. She would grab [Titan Blooded III] after a quick nap and distributing some points. She squeezed her next stone and pulled up the list for [Aspect of the Siren]. She hadn’t seen any of these yet. It looked like there were two trees like most other aspects. There was the [Irresistable] and [Voice of the Siren] tree. So far only the Tier One abilities were visible because she hadn’t selected anything from that section. 

Teyva blinked, canting her head to the right. All of these abilities were pretty awesome, but one, in particular, caught her eye. The mysterious [Word of Power, Minor] did not explain in any way what it did. She looked at the other abilities for a moment. She wanted to choose all of them, but her instincts kept pulling her towards [Word of Power, Minor]. She licked her lips, there was a risk it didn’t do much of anything. But on the other hand, the [Titan Blooded] abilities she had been picking up were also No Rank abilities and they had provided her with a huge bonus. She grinned, that was good enough reason to roll the dice. She selected [Word of Power, Minor].

Immediately she felt a headache come on. She let out a grunt of pain and fell backward, gripping her skull as Queenie scuttled away and Nephral leaped to her side. “Mother! Mother, what’s wrong?”

“Head is splitting!” She gasped, rolling onto her side and gritting her teeth. Prompts began to trigger in the back of her mind as her vision nearly went white from the pain. It was almost as bad as using an Aspect Stone. She ground her jaw, exhaling hard as the pain began to subside and she opened her eyes. “Shit!” She hissed, “What the hell?”

She sat up, patting a worried-looking Nephral on the head, and checked her prompts.

Teyva felt a chill run up her spine, “Nephral, my mental block is gone,” Teyva said, trying to remain calm. “Holy shit, this is awesome.”

“You can master sorcery now, mother!” Nephral cheered.

“Even better than that, I’ve gained an advanced skill, [Aspect Tongue]. Apparently, I can cast spells with words alone,” She said, rubbing her chin, “No idea how that works though. Maybe I already have a list of basic spells or something.”

“It sounds like old magic,” Nephral said thoughtfully, “I have not heard of such an ability.”

Teyva pulled up her spells tab but it was blank, only a note saying that she had not discovered any words of power to use. She rolled her jaw and thought about it, if it was some kind of old magic that used language perhaps she should try saying something in Labyrinthian. It made sense, she supposed, but she hadn’t ever actually tried to speak the language before. Even the Akurai spoke something similar to what the Azar were using. She held out her hand and decided to experiment a little. It couldn’t hurt. Either it worked or it didn’t and she’d ask Paraklytus for advice. 

“Okay, it says I need to use Mana Manipulation with my words,” Teyva said, turning her hand palm up. “Might as well try for the old reliable classic,” She quipped and let out a breath. The word came out like a rasp as she drew mana toward her body, putting a little focus behind it. “<Fire>”

A flame erupted in her palm and she nearly jumped. She settled, holding it away from her face as she realized the heat wasn’t singeing her. She drew it closer, watching Nephral stare in wonder out of the corner of her eye. “Incredible…” She murmured, clenching her fist and allowing the flame to dissipate.

“So freaking cool! I’ll have to try a whole bunch of words!” She laughed, drawing a grunt of discomfort from the baby in her crib. She coughed and lowered her voice, “I can’t wait to tell Perry,’ she muttered. She reached for her next Aspect Shard and pulled up the list of [Pale Dawn] abilities.

There was only one obvious choice. She picked [Bleak Presence] immediately. As soon as she did she willed [Withering Halo] to shut off. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, she was encompassed by complete darkness. She took a deep breath and savored it for a moment before turning her halo back on so she could see. She didn’t want to cast [Eyes of the Labyrinth] just to function in her bedroom at night. She grabbed her next shard and pulled up [Facsimile]

This was significantly harder. She wasn’t all that interested in [Consume] at the moment but she was curious about what Tier 3 ability might come after it. On the other hand she saw [Create True Mimic] as an obvious choice to continue improving her current abilities. [Dancing Weapons] seemed wise for improving her defensive ability and [Assume Resistance] was just impressive on its own. She looked to Nephral and briefly explained the various abilities that were available.

“It was implied that no abilities are off the table for the competition, Mother, so it may behoove you to take advantage of that. While in any other case I would suggest [Assume Resistance], for the immediate future I would urge you to take [Create True Mimic],” Nephral said.

She nodded, “Agreed,” she selected the ability and to her surprise, Queenie immediately leaped off of her head and rushed to the pile of coins in the corner of the room. She began to bury herself among the pile, nestling in with the other Mockeries. Teyva glanced at Nephral who shrugged. Deciding not to question it too much she grabbed her last Aspect Shard and pulled up the list for [Labyrinthian].

The other abilities were appealing, [Passwall] was something she’d been musing about for a while. [Improved Mind Trap] was cool and [Primary Gaze] sounded absolutely wicked. But there was only one choice for her right now, especially after her conversations with Nephral. She chose [Summon Gnostisphinx] and turned to Nephral.

“Looks like it’s your lucky day, dearie,” She cooed and held out her hand. 

Nephral looked up at her in surprise, “Mother?”

Teyva cast [Summon Gnostisphinx] and a blinding flash of light began to fill the room as her mana plummeted. She heard the groans and whimpers of Stella nearby and felt bad for startling the baby. She kept it up, though, watching as Nephral grew larger and larger. Eventually, his backside slipped off the bed. When it was done and the light faded, Nephral had grown to a positively enormous size. His wings were a good ten feet in span at this point and his body was the size of a small lion. His head was approximately the size of his mother's, which made his saucer-like eyes even bigger. The feline blinked, looking down at himself and turning around, looking at his hindquarters and how they were sitting on the ground.

“What?” He blurted, “I’m bigger?” He looked to Teyva, “Mother! I’m bigger!” He blurted out, jumping onto the bed and tackling her to the soft mattress. She wrapped her arms around his neck and laughed.

“Yes you are sweetheart, yes you are.”

“Thank you Mother, I will not let you down. I will use this gift you’ve given me well!” He rambled, sitting up straight, his tail flicking left and right.

“I know, dearie,” She said, reaching and stroking his face, “Just be careful, I don’t want you getting hurt. Stay close to me always, understand?”

“Of course, I am at your side till the very end,” Nephral said with a bow of his head.

“Good boy,” She said and fell back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling. The use of such a huge amount of mana had tuckered her out. She started to close her eyes when a sudden piercing cry from the crib drew her back to a sitting position. She rubbed her face and laughed, “So much for getting some sleep, just a second sweetie! Momma’s coming.”