Teyva awoke in a bed hours later. It wasn’t her room. Wherever she was, it was dark and she could faintly hear the sound of Azrael sleeping nearby. Her body ached and it was difficult even to sit up let alone move. She groaned, her mind swimming through her memories. She could vaguely remember the flood of prompts that had appeared when she was being carried out of the Arena. Her Sovereign Aspect had awakened and she’d gained three abilities in one go. She felt something heavy shift on her legs and looked down to see Nephral in his larger form resting across her ankles. His ear flicked but he otherwise didn’t move.

  Teyva lay her head back on the pillow and let out a low breath, so much had happened during the fight she could barely make sense of it all. She felt like she’d entered a whole other state of mind, hyperfocused on the fight. When the new abilities began to surface she had just rolled with it, using them without thinking. It was a little freaky how easily it had come to her, as if she’d been born for it. She rubbed her face and tried to go back to sleep. Failing that, she switched gears and decided to go through her prompt log. She hadn’t been in such a state before that she couldn’t remember everything that had popped up so she’d never had to use it.

  “I leveled up three times,” Teyva murmured, “Damn. That’s a lot of shards,” She murmured, reviewing her rewards.

  She paused at the achievements, she knew what manifesting a Sovereign Aspect meant from her conversation with Thrake but it was still one hell of a thing to see. So she was an Aspect Being now, she didn’t exactly feel different from before. Her aches and pains honestly made it feel worse. She grumbled and moved over to her new Aspect. From its description, the new Aspect was going to adapt her other Aspects to her style. More notable was the fact that she couldn’t use shards on it, she’d simply gain the abilities from the Aspect as she leveled up.

  “That helps,” She murmured, she kept running out of shards now that she had five aspects to spend them on. She turned her attention to the abilities that came with her Sovereign Aspect, looking them over with a critical eye. [Dominion Pool] changed everything, she could have more than one Behemoth out at the same time, more than one Elemental! She grinned and moved on. She rubbed her chin, [Multisummon] had a lot of possibilities, it could make for an excellent surprise attack. The most obvious use was creating four Darkeyes at once to expand her senses quickly. Her eyes fell on [Uplift Monster] and she glanced at Nephral. “I wonder if he’d notice,” She mused.

  She sat up a little and held her hand out, giving the ability a try, “You deserve this little buddy.”

  A faint glow rose off of Nephral and his body grew by a few inches but he otherwise didn’t budge from his deep rest. She smiled and drew out her journal, maybe it would work on him now that he was an independent creature.

  “Not bad,” She chuckled, dismissing her Journal and pulling out some Aspect Shards, “We’ll make today your birthday.”

  She was about to close her eyes and enter the void when she felt the thoughts of her mockeries stirring nearby. She glanced to Nephral and saw his ear flick again. Sending a calming thought to them she urged Queenie to come join her. The little creature skittered down from the ceiling, climbing along the wall and Teyva squinted in the dark to catch sight of the clumps of coins clinging to the wall above her head. She chuckled, at least they weren’t piling on top of her like they used to. Queenie hurried into her palm and Teyva lay back down. “Hello dearie,” She whispered, “You wanna be like Nephral?”

  The tiny mother of many sent her a quizzical thought and Teyva stifled a laugh, “Of course you do.”

  She cast [Uplift Monster] again and the creature fell still, shuddering for a moment and growing to the size of a hockey puck. The now large gold coin eyed her intently, its other eyes flicking around the room as if taking it in for the first time. It then turned all of its eyes on her. Teyva flinched a little when she heard a sinister hiss in the back of her mind.

  This one is aware, mother. This one knows.

  “Knows what?” She asked.

  It knows of itself, of mother, of its children.

  “Oh I see, congratulations Queenie dear,” She murmured, stroking the side of the coin. “You planning on having a lot of babies?”

  This one will have the grandest swarm, may they one day number in the millions.

  “M-millions?” Teyva blanched, “That’s a lot of work.”

  Such is the role of a Queen, yes?

  “I suppose so, hon, I suppose so,” She said and allowed Queenie to return to her protective nest.

  Teyva returned her focus to leveling up, closing her eyes for a moment and drifting into the void. As always she checked for Rani’s presence but was pleased to see that she was still sealed away. She spent her first set of fifteen points, ten on willpower and five on influence. She’d do the reverse next level. She opened her eyes and was thankful it was still dark.

  It was interesting that her control limit for Mockeries was separate from her Dominion Pool. She looked down to the small pile of five shards sitting in her lap. She turned her gaze to Nephral and found him rolled over onto his side, finally freeing her legs. She pulled her legs in and after some effort, forced herself into a sitting position. She sat alone in the dark, picking up one shard at a time and squeezing them.

  First, an ability she regretted not getting sooner. She hadn’t given it enough thought at the time but being able to create a staircase anywhere she wanted was ridiculously useful. She could give herself the high ground anywhere she wanted.

  Next an ability she really didn’t want to use herself, but she figured that with Mimickry at least one or two of her creatures would be able to benefit from it.

  This completed that tier of Labyrinthian and would open up new abilities to grab for her next level. It would also be useful in a pinch. She wondered if Mimicry would give it to any of her darlings as well.

  That bump right there finally blasted her health up into the thousands. Grinning she moved to the last shard of this level.

  Easy pick, should help during melee combat and just dealing with unpleasant situations. After wrapping up that first set of picks she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, drawing her mana around herself before diving into the Void again.

  Another dip into the void, another dump of points. She put ten into influence and five into willpower before resurfacing. She glanced about and saw that night was still holding on. She wished she had some kind of internal clock function within her user interface. She moved on to the next set of shards.

  Her last tier 2 ability of Pale Dawn wrapped it up nicely. She grabbed her next shard and squeezed it.

  The remaining Tier 3 abilities for Facsimile gave her some pause but she eventually settled for [Assume Resistance]. She moved on to Labyrinthian again.

  She winced at [Create Chimera] it just didn’t sound like something she wanted to pursue. She might eventually pick it up to continue the Labyrinthian chain but otherwise she’d avoid it. [Primary Gaze] was just badass, so she picked it up immediately. Next was Titan, with only one ability left to pick until she hit level 15.

  Another beast added to her arsenal, she smiled with satisfaction and hopped over to [Siren].

  The ability sounded cool though she’d never been much of a singer. Maybe this would give her the ability to do so. She just hoped she didn’t sound terrible. She looked down at her last shard and considered using it right away on her next level, she could hold off and give it some more thought but she had one more ability she wanted to grab. She closed her eyes again and began to meditate, drifting into the Void and spending her last fifteen points on Willpower. When she opened her eyes, light had begun to filter in through a window she couldn’t see on the opposite side of the room. She snatched up her last shard and squeezed it before pulling up the Siren list and snagging that last Tier 1 ability.

  “Done,” She murmured, and pulled up the top of her character sheet.

  “Nice,” Teyva laughed, “Now those are some good looking stats,” she said as she clenched her fists, feeling the strength in her body and the sharpness of her mind. She wondered if she was ready to take Rani on yet. She didn’t have time to think about it as Nephral stirred at the foot of her bed. He blinked a few times, raising his head and looking around for a moment before looking at Teyva. He gave her a considering look and then bore his teeth in a smile,

  “Good Morning, dear Mother,” He said.

  “Good Morning, dearie,” Teyva said and held out her hands. He strode across the bed and rested his large head in her hands. She scratched behind his ears and looked him in the eyes. “Let’s go wake up Azrael.”