"Venerable One, have we slighted you in any way?" The man asked, staring at me.

"Not that I am aware of," I replied, not looking up from petting Steeve, who was totally on board with this arrangement. "Is there a reason you ask?"

"You've hidden your aura from us, or used some sort of stealth technique." The man stated.

Ahh, so that's what that's called. Well. Let's see what they think of this.

I took my Streams and circulated them at max capacity, then I took more or less all the Nebula I could and sent it out to fill the space around me as fast as possible. This seemingly foolhardy maneuver served two purposes for me. One is that by feeling around with my Nebula, it'd allow me to see just how many people were here, and for a second, I could gauge their reaction to my maximum output and get an idea of how I compared to my guests and see if fighting them was even possible should it come to that.

I'd then pass the whole thing off as me just flexing my aura if I could get away with it, which would hopefully raise me a few notches in their eyes.

This is totally going to bite me square in the ass later, isn't it?

From their perspective, they just saw me sitting stock still as all of the sudden a blast of power so dense it was almost like a wall exploded out of me in every direction, as I continued to pet Steeve like nothing had changed.

"Is this better?" I asked quietly, not betraying the amount of effort it took to keep up such a high output.

The man dropped to the ground and slammed his head on the floor, immediately bringing me recollections of the last time I visited. I'd forgotten these people from the… Circle something… had a penchant for abusing their skulls.

"This one apologizes for his imprudence!" He said in an almost panicked voice. The entire group behind him had hit the deck as well. That answers my question - at the very least anyone here was probably at most my match and there wasn't anyone who could see through what I just did.

I then forcibly controlled all of the Nebula I'd let go back into my person, something that lead to a bit of a headache from all the control I was exerting. I was just happy I managed to keep any of the signs of exertion off of my face.

This led to a big vortex of the stuff forming around my position as it was sucked through the trees and past everyone lying on the ground before disappearing into me. Inside my vision, I could see some wisps of other colors being dragged along for the ride from the 'auras' of other people in the glen. That was something I'd definitely have to look into later. For now, even though I'd definitely regret the additional exertion after this was done, I tried to increase this effect. Essentially I was willing my own Nebula to be more sticky or grabby towards other energies. If I was looking to intimidate, I wasn't going to half-ass it.

The additional effort was rewarded when thick wafts of colors began pulling off of the prostrate people, ignoring my own group entirely - not that most of them even had any Nebula to, uh, tactically acquire.

Looking closely at the division line at my skin I'd been using to recirculate what was apparently called 'aura' here, I saw that as soon as these other colors hit it, they immediately started turning into the golden white color of my Nebula.

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I wound up feeling a little 'full', for lack of a better word. But I returned my 'aura' to cycling immediately at the surface, even though it'd probably feel better to just let the excess leak out. I just crammed it down into my Core, or what I envisioned as such behind my navel, hoping maybe I could just hold it there.

This is probably the point where I came the closest to breaking out in a full-blown cold sweat. All that power fought quite intensely against my will, which resulted in me pushing back harder. Eventually I won the tug-o-war and the bloated feeling disappeared. I did get a bit of a feeling during everything the I was getting some subtle help from the world around me.

I looked up at the man, who was back on his feet, even if he looked a little wobbly.

"My understanding is that the people here are members of a Circle of sorts," I said, lifting some information from my own experiences to continue the ruse - Behold, Char the mind reader! - but at the same time my crappy memory prevented me from remembering the full name. "If I am still able to impose upon you to visit, I would be in your debt."

This made my promise more valuable, but at the same time I was getting increasingly worried as no one else was up yet.

"Of course, and there is no need to speak of debts. It would be our honor for our humble Stormwing Circle to host a great personage such as yourself."

Hoo boy, I really dug myself a hole. Hopefully they wouldn't ask for advice. My 'high and mighty' demeanor would definitely come crashing down if I opened my mouth too much. Hopefully István would wake up soon and save me from myself. My brain hurt more from all the big words and fancy talking, than it did from the borderline overuse of my will controlling my Nebula.

"May I have your name, Brother…" I asked, using the method of address I'd heard used as bird-me. He'd brightened up immediately.

"This one is known as Lǐ Tiānzhēn," He said, bowing again. Apparently in addition to their skull strengthening exercises, they also liked core workouts. "'Brother' is too much honor for me," he continued, "Please call me Junior Lǐ."

"Then, Junior Lǐ," I said, "We will be in your care."

"Certainly," Junior Lǐ said, taking out a tiny object out of his pocket. It was only after he blew into it that I realized it was a whistle.

I couldn't actually hear the sound it made, but since I had my 'aura sight' still active, I could see it emitted a tiny bit of Nebula out of the end, which rocketed into the atmosphere and was outside my range so fast I'm surprised I even caught it. Looking closer at the whistle, I realized it had a mote inside.

Did that make it an Artifact? Looking around I realized that most things in the clearing had motes in them. The trees, some of the larger plants in the ground, I could even spot them milling around in the soil.

So, probably not?

Before I could contemplate further, I saw Junior Lǐ welcome an exquisite falcon into the clearing, where it landed on his arm carefully, such that its claws barely disturbed the fabric there. It was sleek and shiny, with piercing yellow eyes and golden plumage flecked with hints of blue here and there, mostly towards the wingtips.

Steeve was watching it like she was the hawk. I just hoped she didn't get an idea in her head to eat it, as not even the power of flight would save it from a hungry fox with the inclination to ignore physics.

A well-kept hand reached past my shoulder, holding some jerky between pristine fingers. Steeve's head snapped around so fast I worried about her neck, before she leaned over and greedily munched on the treat.

I looked up at István, who stood behind me, with a the sort of smile on his face that only those close to him would recognize as such - a bemused smirk that likely would barely register if you didn't already know the man.

"Thank you for taking care of our Steeve," I said to him, and several of the people gathered around the clearing gave me strange looks.

"'Earth-Gathering Amulet'?" One said to someone next to him.

"No, I believe Venerable meant 'Lost-Ground Charm'. How on earth did they imbue such a thing into a living creature? Or is it an animate object?"

One looking a bit older than the two boys who were conversing leaned in and said, "I'm pretty sure the Venerable One said 'Time-Fleeing Talisman'." The other two nodded sagely at this, like the mystery had been solved. Then they noticed me watching them and quickly pretended to be looking elsewhere, like children caught red-handed in the cookie jar.

I, however, was extremely confused, and looked down at Steeve. She looked back up at me with her cheeks puffed out, full of meat.

Oh well, still cute no matter what she is.

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