I had to agree.
“I think I’m going to choose it,” I said. “I know previously that I’ve chosen the upgrade which gets me more Renown, but this time, I think I’m going to treat myself to some new weapons to use with the shinobi aspect of the Kitsune Persona.”
I reached out and touched the Kusarigama image. The familiar sensation, somewhere between heat and cold, pleasurably flooded through my body and my outfit. The new weapons shimmered into existence, fitting neatly into a holder at the back of the belt that came with the Kitsune Persona.
Putting my hands down, I could feel the cold blades of the new weapons ready for me to use, the long chains and deadly mace heads wrapped up in a tight coil next to the blades.
“What’s that other option here?” Cara looked curiously at the upgrades diagram. I followed her gaze.
“This is very interesting,” I said as I held my hands over the image. It was a picture of a man’s face, but there was a black-gloved hand held over the eyes. At first, I wasn’t entirely certain what this was supposed to represent. As I thought about it, the realization slowly dawned. “It’s something to do with hiding from the enemy—I want to say invisibility, but that’s not quite right. It’s more like misdirection, a way of making the enemy look the other way.”
“That would make sense as an upgrade to such a stealth-focused Persona,” Cara said thoughtfully. “But how could it work? As you say, becoming completely invisible would be too much power even for a Persona, surely?”
“Yes, that’s right. It’s not invisibility. It’s more like the ability to make an enemy look elsewhere and not notice you. I think I’ll take this upgrade. After our next battle, I might choose to apply the increased Renown collection trait to this Persona.”
“I’m excited to see how the misdirection power works,” Cara said.
“Me too,” I said. “We haven’t had much need for anything like that just yet, but I can imagine many situations where something like that could prove useful or even critical. I’ll apply the upgrade now.”
I tapped the image to gain the skill. It glowed and then faded, coming back to the previous diagram. Once the pleasurable wave that came with the upgrading had passed, I turned my attention to the Persona of Ironside.
I was reaching forward to touch the Ironside image when a voice interrupted us from the edge of the clearing.
“Very impressive,” it said.
Cara and I both turned quickly to see who the newcomer was. To our surprise, it was Lady Kai, the leader of the cavalry team who had showed up at the end of the battle. She was standing at the edge of the tree line looking down into the clearing at us, as we stood with the row of faintly glowing Persona images hanging magically suspended in the air in front of us.
She walked carefully down into the clearing. The dappled sunlight played across the expanses of bronzed skin left uncovered by her armor. She moved with all the grace of a skilled warrior, combined with the sensuousness of a strong, confident woman.
“Very impressive indeed,” she said again. Her voice was warm and smooth as honey, and genuine interest shone in her face.
I would have expected my instinct to have been wary of the newcomer, protective of the intricacies of my soul binding ability and the Persona upgrades which were on display in the clearing. Instead, I felt nothing but warmth and trust toward this woman, and a glance at the open smile on Cara’s face showed me that she felt the same.
“Lady Kai,” I said. I stepped around the Persona diagram and moved toward her, my hand extended palm upward in a gesture of welcome. “You’ve found us in the middle of our upgrading process.”
“So I gather.” She stepped up to look at the Persona diagram hanging in the middle of the clearing. She smiled at us both. “I hope you don’t mind—when Toshiro told me about what you could do, I thought it was just a battle technique, like using a sword or firing a bow. Now I see that it’s much more powerful and much more... intimate. You two have a very special connection.”
“I didn’t realize it was so obvious,” I said.
“Only to one who has seen such things before,” she replied, smiling enigmatically.
Cara and I glanced at one another, but said nothing. How could she have seen a Soul Binder upgrading Personas?
Lady Kai was reaching up to the back of her neck. Her low neckline showed the swell of plunging cleavage, and between her breasts a carved wooden amulet dangled from a woven leather cord. She was untying the knot at the back of her neck and drawing it forth.
“This,” she said, holding it out, “I was given by my mother. She was given it by her mother, and so on down the generation for years beyond count. It carries a legend of a great warrior, a warrior from so long ago that his name is forgotten and only his legend remains. He was the husband of one of the high priestesses of our clan. When he died, he imbued his essence into this object, with the instruction that it should be passed on as an heirloom until one could be found who could use it. He meant one like you, Leofwine of Saxe. A Soul Binder.”
“How do you know about...?” Cara began to ask, but she fell silent when she saw the little wooden disk in Kai’s hand. It was about three inches across, a thick chunk of pale wood shaped into the form of a strange bear.
I wasn’t sure what to say. Kai treated it with great reverence, holding it out as if it were a precious gift. It didn’t look like much to me. I thought I would just chalk this up to the difference between cultures and accept it, despite the humble nature of the
