I held my hand over the gemstone upgrade, then tapped it with my palm. It spun and shone out brightly, and again I felt that pleasant, satisfying shudder as the upgrade took effect.
Light flickered across my body, from my hands, up my arms, then down to my boots. When the image of the gemstone and the other two upgrade options faded, it was replaced by the Ironside suit and the Kitsune robes again. They hovered in front of me, but this time there was another difference.
“Look at the glass that holds my supply of Renown,” I said.
She leaned in to look closer. “It’s changed!”
It was empty now, but it was wider than it had been before, as if it would now hold more Renown than previously. Also, it now had some fancy scrollwork around the base and the top—sinuous shapes like twining dragons adorned each end of it. I reached out to touch it.
As my hand hovered over it, the image faded. This time, instead of showing me options, it showed me something new entirely.
“What’s this?” said Cara, sounding surprised. It was an image of the troll we had killed. He was as he had been initially, untainted by the Festering.
Curious, I held my hand over the troll image. The intuition—which I was coming to realize was the special power of the Soul Binder—told me something very simple. This was a bonus. The troll was physically incredibly strong and had great endurance. Having killed him allowed me to bind his qualities directly to myself, rather than to any of my Personas. They would apply to me no matter what Persona I was wearing.
I smiled, explaining it to Cara. “The troll was not wicked or evil on his own account. I think the Tengu forced him to fight, and then the Festering took him. It was the Festering we killed, not the troll itself. Trolls are stupid, and can be cruel, but they are not intentionally evil. I’ll gladly accept the bonus that comes from his strength. It will be a useful upgrade in any situation.”
I reached out and laid my hand on the image of the troll.
This time, the shudder and rush of the upgrade hit me somewhere deep inside myself. I realized that the former upgrades had moved into the Personas, as if they were a skin I wore. This upgrade went straight into my heart. Cara was watching me with wide eyes and an admiring smile on her face.
Energy and strength surged through me. The extra strength was immediately taking effect, and I felt like I could've fought ten trolls single-handedly just at that moment. I felt taller, broader, stronger, and even more confident and virile than I had before.
“How do you feel?” asked Cara.
“I feel amazing,” I said, smiling. “I can't wait to be able to share the Personas with you; it's a really powerful feeling.”
“Me too,” she replied fervently.
“Don’t worry,” I said comfortingly, and reached a hand out to place it on her shoulder. “We’ll get there. I have a feeling it won’t be long until we can share Personas.”
Chapter Eight
The upgrade diagram faded from sight, and we looked around the dale again. We looked first at the civilians we had rescued. All three were sleeping soundly. Cara went over and examined them, then came back.
“Let’s let them sleep,” she said. “They seem to be sleeping naturally rather than suffering any kind of ill effect from their experience. It’s early in the day yet, and my instinct tells me that they will be better if we let them sleep it off for as much time as they need.”
“You’re the healer,” I said. “If you think that’s what’s best, that’s what we’ll do.”
I was keen to try out the upgrades to the Personas. “We can’t just abandon them, though. We’ll need to wait until they wake up. Shall we use the time to see what these new Persona upgrades can do?”
Cara smiled. “Good idea. I was actually just going to suggest that.”
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go over toward the woods.”
“Shall we start with the ice shuriken?” Cara asked. She seemed eager to see the new effects I had obtained. I was pleased to note that there was no jealousy in her attitude. She wanted to learn to use the Personas for herself, but she didn’t resent me for having something she hadn’t achieved yet.
“All right,” I said. “I’ll start by just throwing a few and seeing what happens.”
We walked away from the smoking battlefield until we reached the tree line. I was still wearing the Kitsune Persona, and when Cara stood out of the way, I reached for the shuriken belt and felt three stars slip onto my palm.
“Ready?” I asked Cara.
“Ready,” she replied eagerly.
I flung the stars toward a tree. As before, three became six, then nine, and then there was a rattle of thudding impacts as they hit the tree. There was a loud crackling that reminded me of the sound of walking on packed ice in the northern mountains of Saxe, and a thick coat of ice spread out from where the stars had hit. It rushed out across the bark of the tree, covering the trunk in a spreading coat of glistening white. Then it ran rapidly up the branches and coated the leaves in frost. It only took a very short space of time for every surface of the tree to be covered in a thick coating of ice.
We both looked at it in amazement.
“How many stars do you have?” Cara asked.
I felt the outside of the sash that held them. “That’s another remarkable thing,” I said. “They don’t seem to run out when I use them. Look.”
I reached up and drew my hand across the belt, another three appeared. I did again, and now I was holding six. “I think I could
