Peaches gave me some side eye.
<For some. Maybe you can have her teach you how to make real meat.>
<I’m not a mage, and do you want this sausage or not?>
<Yes, please. I’m starving.>
I held up a finger.
“One, please.”
Viana finished gesturing and produced a large sausage, placing it on the floor in front of Peaches. He gently hovered over it before inhaling the sausage into the bottomless depths of his digestive system.
“Guess he was hungry?”
“No,” I said, nudging my shameless ever-hungry hellhound forward. “His default setting is on devour.”
“Oh, I see,” she answered. “Must be because he’s a puppy?”
“Not really,” I said, moving around my ever-widening bondmate. “He just thinks if he isn’t eating every moment, he must be starving.”
“Oh, well, it was nice to meet you,” Viana said, stepping out of Peaches’ way. “He’s cute—I mean, for a hellhound.”
“Don’t inflate his oversized ego, please,” I answered, moving down the hallway to the backroom after Monty. I looked down at Peaches. “Don’t forget to say thank you—gently.”
Peaches turned and let out a small bark which reverberated through the apartment.
“That’s some bark,” Viana said, rubbing an ear. “You’re welcome, Peaches. Anytime you need a sausage, let me know.”
<Did you hear that? She called me cute. Do you think I could get the cold girl’s guardian to call me cute?>
<Don’t see it happening any time soon. Rags is obviously immune to your hellhound charms.>
<I know, but I don’t understand. The bird girl said she would make me meat anytime. That is excellent.>
<She didn’t mean that literally.>
<She said “any time.” Which means when I’m hungry, I’m going to visit her. Plus, she thinks I’m cute.>
<Let’s go see what Monty is doing. I’m sure Rags is just waiting to see you.>
<You think so?>
<Not really. Whatever you do, don’t smile at her. She won’t think it’s cute.>
<I should have saved half of the meat to give to the beautiful guardian.>
<Amazing.>
<That the guardian is beautiful?>
<That you would even consider saving half a sausage to share with Rags.>
<The guardian and I are meant to be together. She is beautiful and I am a cute hellhound. I don’t understand—how can she resist my cuteness?>
<Truly, it’s a mystery.>
<Can you resist my cuteness?>
<As your bondmate, I don’t think your cuteness applies to me. But I can objectively say, for a hellhound, you’re pretty up there in the cute department.>
<I think so. I think the beautiful guardian just needs more meat. Can you have the bird girl make her some meat later?>
<I’ll ask her later. Let’s go see what Monty is up to.>
I shook my head as he padded on ahead of me in confused silence. We got to the back room where Monty was speaking with Cece. Off to the side, sitting next to Cece, was Rags.
Monty was tracing some white symbols in the air. I recognized some of them from Ziller’s image of the Earth’s Breath.
“I have an exercise for you, Cecelia. This time I want you to try and create a shortcut.”
“Are you sure? You asked me not to do that any more,” Cece said warily. “Aunt Olga will get really angry if I freeze her building again.”
“That’s why Viana is here,” Monty said, quietly. “To make sure we don’t freeze the building again.”
I looked back to see Viana standing in the doorway, focused intently on Cece.
“Okay, Mr. Montague,” Cece answered, rubbing Rags’ neck. “If you promise Aunt Olga won’t get upset.”
“I promise,” Monty answered with a slight smile. “Now, I’m going to trace some symbols. I want you to look for the connection.”
“Look for the connection, got it.”
“Can you read these?” Monty asked, tracing the symbols slowly. “Do you know what they say?”
“Not really, Mr. Montague,” Cece answered. “They look all inside out.”
“Inside out? Of course.” More gesturing again. Monty now had a string of six runic symbols floating on one line, in front of Cece. “And now? Can you read them now?”
“Yes, I can feel them, but I don’t know what they mean,” Cece answered. “Is that okay?”
Monty nodded. “That can work. Feeling is how we all start.”
“You want me to make a shortcut?”
“Yes. More importantly, can you find a shortcut from this symbol”—he pointed to the first symbol on the left—“to this one?” he finished, pointing to the last symbol on the right. “Look closely.”
Cece scrunched her face together and narrowed her eyes at the symbols, then started tracing symbols of her own. She made connecting blue lines between the runes Monty had traced and her new ones. This was like watching Ziller’s theories in 3D.
“Can I add some and switch the places?” she asked, still creating more blue lines of energy, overlapping Monty’s white ones. “Is that okay? I think I can feel them better now.”
“Do you mean switch the order?” Monty asked. “I’m afraid not, they need to be in a—”
“Not switch the order,” Cece explained, tracing out two new symbols in her blue energy. “I mean switch the places, like this.”
The new symbols were duplicates of the first and last symbols on Monty’s line. She placed three symbols facing each other with the last one on the bottom. then repeated the configuration on the outside.
With one last gesture, the runic symbols became solid faces, creating a triangular pyramid inside a larger triangular pyramid. The outer one was a light blue, the inner one a deep blue.
Monty rubbed his chin and stared at the image for a good ten seconds before saying anything. He shook his head slowly and looked at the floating image from every angle. I sensed the latent energy that pulsed from the symbols.
“Did she get it?” I asked, pointing at the pyramid figure floating in the air. “Whatever that is, it looks powerful.”
“Dual tetrahedrons?” Monty said, narrowing his eyes. “How did you do this?”
“I feel them,” Cece answered. “Your symbols reminded me of ice. So I stacked them, like crystals.”
“That makes perfect sense,” Monty said, mostly to himself. “You’re an ice mage. It informs how
