As I returned to the inn, my normal bodyguard Sasa still trailing in my wake, I pushed the odd interaction from my mind.

I sent a message to Inara asking when she wanted me to cast the [Transform Self] spell the following day as we had planned to meet over breakfast for a longer talk.

She agreed to come to my room and apply makeup to disguise me so I wouldn't have to cast it too early, the spell only lasting twelve hours, and then we could see about the day's plans. I was grateful she didn't want to put me through the pain of the spell without reason.

I went to grab Steve from Romie and head to bed.

"So, how was he?" I asked our archer. Steve loved all the other members of The Order though for different reasons: Inara spoiled him, Pavel sparred and played rough with him, and Romie read to him, a nice and peaceful time.

I figured our non-binary archer had a quiet and calm evening, especially after all we had experienced during the day.

They gave me an annoyed look. "Helion. Kept squeezing. Couldn't settle down." I knew Romie didn't want to say too much as their Innate Capability would start to make them less effective with everything communicated.

I probed Steve through our link and the little sugar glider seemed inordinately pleased with himself.

Something to see about later.

I apologized and made Steve do a little bow and wave, his custom nighttime farewell to our teammates. This time I didn't actually have to move his body for him.

Once in our room, Steve immediately climbed to my shoulders, and using all four of his limbs, started kneading my shoulders and neck.

He was pretty bad at it, trying to grab as hard as he could with every movement.

Ah, squeezing. Makes more sense.

I tried to coax him to be a bit gentler; he seemed to get it until he got excited a few seconds later, going back to his more rough treatment.

While probing him through our link, I asked some questions out loud. He seemed to genuinely understand most of the simple questions but anything more complex, especially when I asked why as any follow-up, seemed to confuse him. Still, his upgraded intelligence had me thinking.

[Are there AAI chips for bonds?] I sent to a smattering of people, even Inga Balodis.

Most of the answers were some version of 'they're a scam and a waste of money' but Nikolaj said he'd look into it. It was a long shot but getting Steve a better way to communicate felt like the right call. Nikolaj probably had the best connections and insight given he'd talked to some AAI chip companies as part of our debit card research work.

I asked my bond, using treats as bribes, to try pushing some of his mana into the self-repair enchantment on my shield. He was utterly inefficient, only pushing for a few seconds before entirely draining his pool, most of the mana going to other enchantments. A bit of the jagged edge of the rent started to smooth out all the same.

There's at least some hope.

After getting into my sleeping gear, everything still quite large on my transformed body, I laid down and went to pull something out of my spatial storage ring, deciding to investigate what pushing so much essence into it had done, when I awoke to a knock at the door and light pouring through my window.

Shit, fell asleep.

Expecting it to be Inara, I opened the door, still in just my sleeping pants. Instead, I was met with a woman whose eyes wandered everywhere, on my body and every conceivable other location, clearly trying desperately for a place to land her gaze. She finally finished on my face before blinking slightly.

"Uh, message?" she asked.

"Do I have a message for you?" I replied, confused.

"Do you?"

"No. Did you wake me up to ask me that?" I was utterly lost even as the sleep slowly retreated from my mind.

"No. Oh, I have a message for you!" She handed over a rolled parchment, blinked four more times, then turned and ran down the hallway.

Keeping my wits about me, I scanned the paper with my spiritual sense but felt nothing, so I unfurled it.

'Your Application to the Pitolan House of Healing, Butkus Branch, is approved. Your appointment is today at one bell past first light.'

Someone pulled some strings for Steve's healing?

Checking my AAI, it was already just twenty minutes to the appointment. My quick glance at a map said it was a bit over ten minutes away at a sprint. I figured I could go and if the price was too steep, I'd wait until we were back in Velez. It wouldn't be the best option for many reasons but I needed to be smart about where I spent my limited funds.

Casting [Transform Self] while trying to change into clothes that didn't fit you at the start of the transformation was… not fun. The pain of the spell was a bit less than the previous day, which meant I was getting accustomed to extreme shocks to my system.

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Not a great thing but at least the mini torture sessions are in safe environments.

My AAI message to my team let them know the situation and Pavel, an early riser, said he was rushing to meet me downstairs. I heard a great crash through the wall and Inara swearing at the man.

Finally dressed, Steve in my arms in his teddy bear costume, I emerged to see Pavel with just his breastplate on, though not well secured, holding the rest of his armor and looking sheepish. He quickly tossed the rest of his gear into his room to another roar from Inara before we ran down the hallway and out of the inn.

As it was still early, there was little traffic and we made it to the house of healing with a few minutes to spare, though we were winded from the all-out sprint. Steve had enjoyed the run at least, letting out little yips of excitement the entire way.

"We're open and it's a damn door, just come in," a grouchy voice called when I knocked.

The Pitolan House of Healing was far different to the hippy-dippy space inside a tree in Velez. There was a random assortment of equipment strewn about the room but that was the only similarity, it looking more like an office and lab combined than anything else.

A man in black robes that entirely covered him from face down to his toes harumphed. "Why are you so out of breath? You look like a couple of beggars."

"I got a message that I had an appointment," I said, holding out the piece of paper.

He snatched it, his hand still inside the sleeve of the robe. "Ugh, that girl. Swear she can't do anything right. It should say 'any time after one bell past first light'. You're here, let's get it done. Sooner finished, sooner you're gone."

Despite being sleepy, I wasn't foolish. "Before we go ahead, I need a cost estimate. I know healing can be expensive."

He waved his hand at me and scoffed. "Hurt pinky, really? I should charge you twenty gold for the inconvenience. And for being a baby. One gold will suffice."

I had forgotten my pinky was even injured. It was a good deal I planned to use anyway as letting injuries heal naturally could sometimes go a bit off.

"No, Healer Ozola, it's for my… pet," I said, not sure if I should reveal Steve was actually my bond.

The little monster made that moot by shrieking indignantly at being called a pet.

"Call me Dusan or Ozola, that Healer this, Healer that garbage is for the assholes. Let me see here." He waved his sleeved hand casually at Steve, then again, before he actually started paying attention. "Here," he said forcefully, indicating a chair where I quickly plopped Steve down.

As he examined the sugar glider more carefully, an odd haze surrounded him as he poked and prodded, obscuring what he was doing. Steve didn't seem to mind so I thought it was safe. My AAI had the building officially registered as a House of Healing and the city's information net listed Dusan as the head Healer, his AAI code that he was broadcasting matching the listing.

He stood back up and smiled creepily, only his teeth visible in the darkness of his face still shadowed by his hood. "40 gold and I get to examine him more thoroughly."

Really good price compared to the 100 or so they quoted me in Velez… there has to be some catch here.

"Explain, specifically, what you mean by examine him more," I said.

"Your bond – yes I'm not an idiot, I know he's a bond – is interesting."

"What does a deeper examination entail? I won't let you hurt him." It was a pretty obvious line but the man was being odd.

"No shit. He's what, less than a year old? I want to examine, not dissect. I'm a damn healer. What's wrong with you?"

Pavel looked as flabbergasted as I was. It was a normal line of questioning and I said as much.

"Bond, tap my hand three times," Dusan said. Steve did it then held his hand out for a treat. "No, unless you do three more things for me, I won't give you anything."

Steve looked sad but nodded. Dusan asked him to stand, sit, then spin around while holding a hand above his head. While he wasn't the most coordinated, especially in a costume, Steve followed the directions. When he didn't get a treat immediately, Steve started to chirp at the man until he pulled a sandwich from his pocket to give the little monster a piece.

Dusan said, "His essence channels are… unique. His intelligence relative to his sub-Tier is high. Higher than should be possible. Yet he isn't neglecting his physical cultivation to only allocate to mind. He even has a decent sized mana pool. It doesn't make sense. It will be non-invasive."

"Send me an AAI-backed guarantee it won't hurt him," I said. "Otherwise, no."

"Can't. Can't be sure of that."

I went to grab Steve when I received a message from Dusan. His offer of an AAI-backed guarantee was essentially what I wanted other than it stipulated nothing Dusan did, to the best of his knowledge and abilities, would harm Steve 'beyond mild annoyance' and with an allowance of simple pokes and prods.

He's good at covering his ass.

It made sense so I agreed.

The obscuring haze returned and Steve was sending me feelings of being bored but not hurt, though every once in a while, there was a poke he really didn't enjoy.

After ten minutes, Dusan announced, "Done!"

I raised an eyebrow. "He's not healed," I stated simply.

Dusan looked sheepish, taking an orb off the shelf. He put one still-robed hand on the orb and the other on Steve's face. Three seconds later, he announced he was finished yet again.

"His previous healing, it was a whole process and this was that easy? No pain? It's just—"

Dusan looked horrified as he shouted, "What kind of moron has to hurt people to heal them!? Unless it was that dipshit Lenka— ah, you had the unfortunate experience of meeting my failed apprentice. Well, hopefully she didn't charge you much. I'd guess it was three sessions, 30 gold or so each? She did a mediocre but still acceptable job." His nonchalance threw me but the numbers threw me more.

"It was 200 gold over two sessions," I said.

The man burst out laughing, a strange wheeze emerging from the robe. It almost looked like his eyes were glowing beneath the hood.

"Well, you're a fool. I thought I was ripping you off with 40 gold. Oh yeah, pay me and leave." He indicated towards the door, his hand still never leaving his sleeve.

Pavel chipped in, "Wait, but did you learn anything interesting when you examined him?"

"Yes, yes I did. Now pay and leave." Dusan picked up Steve, pressed him into my arms, and walked to his desk, sitting down with his back to us.

Pavel went to open the door but it was locked. We both got an AAI message saying payment was due before we could leave.

"Fix my pinky and we'll go," I said. He waived his arm from across the room, not even looking at me, and my hand felt instantly better. 41 gold lighter, we left to head back to the inn.

As we entered, my AAI blinked in my vision. [Incoming Message from Nikolaj Arpa: Found someone working on bonds – well, more animals but definitely interested in bonds – and AAI chips. Restricted research for humans and sentient/sapient beasts so there's a lot there… In Zalano, so let me know how you want to proceed.]

Sitting at our table, easily recognizable, as much based on her companion as anything else, was Inga Balodis. The Mayor would have been hard to spot dressed as she was but her assistant Norbert was dressed like usual, brown shirt and slightly lighter brown pants, sticking out for his incredibly crisp posture in the inn chair.

"Heard you had fun at Gema's," Inga said with a smirk. "I have plans for you. Here or elsewhere, we should talk. I have a mission for you."

"I'm not yours to command, I thought we established that," I replied a bit testily.

"Oh, I'm aware. But I think you'll like this." Her smile reminded me of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. "Care to get a little revenge?"

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