Vee frowned as he stared at the Expectation. The snake dragon's eyes were dark, glittering pools of black rimmed with blue, and there was a mocking intelligence in them that Vee found irritating. Its teeth were long and jagged – far more so than Vee remembered them being, and glowing words adorned every two or three scales. Most of them were the same as the things Vee had read before – hopes for a brighter future, requests for safety for children, et cetera – but there were a few new requests in there too.

"Off," Vee said, tapping the spirit and nodding to the air in front of him. The Expectation begrudgingly complied, unfurling its long body from Vee's shoulders and floating into the empty part of the office. As it moved, Vee saw that it also had grown several tiny sets of silver wings, though of course since it was a spirit they weren't necessary for the Expectation to fly.

"What is it?" the Expectation asked, its melodious voice ringing into the office. "Explain the expression on your face, human."

Vee's temper flared at the spirit's tone. What an arrogant creature this Expectation was! He paused for what felt like a long time, making sure that he'd properly quelled his instinctive reaction, then folded his hands together and met the dragon's eye.

"You will address me as Master," he said firmly. One of the first things he'd learned as a [Ghost Maestro] was that when it came to managing spirits it was critical to maintain a proper sense of authority over them. Otherwise one was likely to end up suffering the adverse effects generally caused by a ghost attempting to usurp the bond – like possession, or worse.

The Expectation remained silent, and a strong sense of rebellion surged through the bond it shared with Vee. The [Ghost Smith] grunted, feeding enough of his own will back to quell the challenge and deliver a mild rebuke. He cringed inwardly.

So far, this wasn't exactly going well.

"I'll repeat my command," Vee said, furrowing his brow. "When you address me, spirit, you shall refer to me as Master."

"And why should I do that, human?"

Ah, yes. Vee recognized this line of questioning well: it was one of the first mentioned in Mastering and Maestroing Spirits, which had been the one book he'd studied closely during his time at the Academy. Thankfully, that meant that he knew exactly how to answer it.

Straightening up, Vee poured more of his will into the bond and said, "Because I have bound you to my service and your continued existence is the result of my will. Should you choose not to comply, I will [Banish] you."

The Expectation didn't so much as flinch. If anything, it looked even more amused than it had before. "That would be the utmost of foolishness, human. I am your greatest source of power in this city. My continued existence and further growth will benefit you beyond any satisfaction [Banishing] me might deliver you."

"Be that as it may, I have no interest in a spirit that doesn't know its place," Vee said. A wave of the Expectation's will was coming back through their bond, and had it not been for the ancient and well-tested mechanics that governed such things, Vee might have been overwhelmed by the tide.

Scowling, Vee decided that this was a job that would require heavier tools than he normally preferred. There were several skills that [Ghost Maestros] – and hopefully also [Ghost Smiths] could use for reining in an unruly spirit. They were just…indelicate, and Vee didn't particularly care for them.

Setting his hands on his knees, Vee focused on the Expectation and said, "[Compel Obedience]."

Using the skill felt like getting kicked in the stomach, which Vee understood was only a mild reflection of what the spirit felt through the bond. The Expectation roared, and Vee met its glare with one of his own.

"You will obey me," he said, surging his will into the bond and overwhelming the snake dragon.

Their wills clashed for a few seconds, but the [Ghost Maestros] who had originally devised the skill for handling truly dangerous spirits and ghosts had known their business and the skill was effective at corralling the Expectation. Its head slumped forward.

[Intimidating Presence +1!]

"I will, master. My apologies. What do you wish to know?"

Relief washed through Vee's thoughts. Had that skill not worked, he would have had to escalate even further, and that would have been unpleasant for all of his orchestra, not just the Expectation. He'd have to navigate the relationship with the snake dragon carefully for the time being, but eventually he hoped that they'd come to a more amicable understanding.

"Please tell me how you managed to grab that man's hand," Vee said. So far as he knew, Expectations weren't the type of spirit that were normally capable of bridging the divide between the ethereal and the physical world. That was because they were fundamentally intangible: hopes and desires given the illusion of a form.

Silence answered him, though Vee didn't sense any sort of rebellion. Instead, he could feel the Expectation thinking. It was clearly trying to find an answer.

Finally, it shook its head. "I'm not sure, master. While I've been growing steadily since entering your service, recently I've had a pair of accelerated growth moments. One happened quite recently, and following it I've felt that the space between my own existence and yours has grown thinner. When that man reached for you, I sensed that you were in danger and reached through the barrier so as to protect you."

"Do you think you could have done anything else to him, or was that the extent of your capabilities?"

Once again, the snake dragon was quiet. Finally it answered, "For now that is all I could have done. The effort to pierce the veil remains too great for me to endure for long, but in time perhaps I could pass through it with ease. I simply need to grow more."

"And how will you do that?"

The Expectation shifted, a shudder racing down its scales in an unmistakable shrug. "The same way as anything else does: by eating and existing. Little hopes and dreams are to me as food and drink is to you. I consume them all and become greater for it. Of course, that growth is meaningless without more of those jumps that I can't explain."

Vee rubbed his chin. What sort of jumps could those be? Something to do with his class change? No, that didn't make any sense. Perhaps something to do with the ectoplasm in Oar's Crest? After all, his fiends were strange too and were capable of things that they weren't supposed to be able to do. Maybe there was something similar at play here.

Hmm, that didn't make much sense either. After all, Rortenferry believed that his fiends weren't actually fiends but instead some other type of similar spirit. If that was true, Vee found it extremely unlikely that it would be happening here too.

It had to be something else, but what?

Realization hit Vee like a thrown brick. He'd gotten another point of Citizenship not that long ago, which had brought his total to twenty-five, which was a well-known threshold number. Thresholds were a bit strange: not all stats had them, but it wasn't unheard of for stats to manifest changes when they reached certain numbers.

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If Vee had been a betting man, he would have guessed that his Citizenship was the reason for the Expectation's sudden change. That prompted further questions, chief among them what would happen when he reached thirty points. Or fifty.

Or any other significant number. Thresholds were weird like that.

Suspecting that this was going to prove to be another massive headache if he just gave it enough time, Vee thanked the Expectation for answering him.

"Before you return to my shoulder I have one last question," he said. "If you are growing and developing a greater sense of awareness then you should have a name. What should I call you?"

The Expectation's mouth curled into its impish smile once again. "You may call me Coxin, master. That is a fitting name for a lady like myself."

Vee nodded, though he was inwardly surprised at the fact that the Expectation had such a developed sense of itself already. Purring, the Expectation returned to its perch atop his shoulders and promptly fell asleep. Somehow she was heavier than she'd had been only a few minutes prior, but Vee didn't really mind.

He looked at Reginald and Alforde, raising a quizzical eyebrow.

Reginald spoke first. "I didn't know you had it in you to be so authoritative, boss. That skill you used was a real piece of work."

"Yeah, that's why I don't like it all that much. What do you think, Alforde?"

The armorsoul shrugged. "I think it was a good thing that Coxin was there and able to act so quickly. I'm grateful to her. However, I suspect that she's going to be a tough spirit for you to handle. Dragons are…a lot. Even if she's just a spirit. Form is strength for spirits."

"Yeah, I know," Vee said. "We'll just take it one step at a time."

He shook his head and stood up. There was still plenty of work to be done that day and they'd burned enough time already.

"Are you done with your practice? Did you learn a new skill?"

Alforde shook his helmet. "Not quite. I feel like I'm on the verge of something, but I haven't had that a-ha moment of realization yet. Hopefully I'll get there sooner rather than later. Is it okay if I go back to my arena to practice?"

Vee nodded. He didn't need anything else from the armorsoul just then.

"What are you going to do?" Alforde asked.

Vee thought about what he could do in the tower and frowned. It wasn't the most glamorous of jobs, but he supposed that he could go down to his workshop and start making a bunch of the ectoplasmic sheets that Brice Gilbert would need for the dunpla figures. He was curious about whether or not the different colors of ectoplasm would yield any different results, and wanted to offer the [Toy Maker] a sample of a bunch so that he could test them and find out which one was the best for their current needs.

"I guess I'm going down to my workshop," he said. "Come up and get me when you've figured out your skill, okay?"

Alforde nodded, and Vee tapped Reginald's brim.

"Do you want to come with me, go with Alforde, or stay here?"

"I'll go with the big guy," Reginald said. "I want to see what he's working on."

Handing the hat to Alforde, Vee headed downstairs and summoned Cog.

At day's end, Alforde brought Reginald up to the workshop with a spring in his step and a bunch of icicles on Slammy's head.

"I got it!" he exclaimed when he came inside. "It took me some extra work, but I figured out how to convert part of my domain into a new attack! Want to see?"

Vee stared at the icicles for a long time before nodding. "Sure, so long as you don't hit any of the machines. It took me and Cog forever to get them all aligned properly."

Alforde nodded. "I won't hit anything, promise. [Encasing Icicles]!"

A frigid wind whipped through the workshop, and when it faded Alforde's hammer was covered in twisted icicle spikes that made it look more like a mace than a hammer.

"What do you think? It'll let me do some pierce damage instead of only impact damage!"

"That's pretty nifty," Vee said, pleased by his friend's enthusiasm.

"What did you get done?"

Vee gestured to the stacks of thin ectoplasmic sheets all over the workshop. There were nearly six hundred in total, and Vee and Cog had worked out a better workflow for them so that they'd be much easier and faster to make in the future. "Hopefully this will be enough to keep Brice busy for a while."

"Should we go ahead and call it for the day then?"

Vee looked around and bobbed his head. "I think so. We got plenty done."

"What's on the agenda for tomorrow?"

Vee tilted his head from one side to the other. "I'm not sure yet. We'll see how we're feeling in the morning, eh?"

"Sounds like a plan, Vee!"

And with that, the trio headed back into Oar's Crest proper for the rest of the evening.

Main Character Sheets:

Vee Vales:

Primary Class: Ghost Smith (Self), Level 10

Secondary Class: Dungeon Master (Oar's Crest), Level 25

Tertiary Class: Guy-Who-Takes-Things-WAY-Too-Far (Self), Level 8

Might: 18

Wit: 42

Faith: 25

Adventurousness: 7

Ambition: 16

Plotting: 22

Charisma: 18

Devious Mind: 30

Leadership: 21

Guts: 16

Intimidating Presence: 12 (+1)

Citizenship: 25

Public Relations: 8

Determination: 7

Persuasiveness: 6

Bargaining: 6

Patience: 4

Competitive Spirit: 1

Pragmatism: 1

<3<3 Infatuation <3<3

Alforde Armorsoul:

Primary Class: Hammer Specialist (Self), Level 6

Secondary Class: Right-hand man (Vee Vales), Level 20

Tertiary Class: Dungeon Champion (Oar's Crest), Level 18

Additional Class: Glaciernaut (Sacha Silverblade), Level 14 (+1)

Might: 62

Wit: 17 (+1)

Faith: 27

Adventurousness (Bound – Vee Vales): 9

Endurance: 36

Intimidating Presence: 16

Heart of a Champion: 15

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 10

Vigilance: 11

Vanity: 2

Single-Mindedness: 1

Reginald:

Primary Class: Core Spirit (Unknown), Level ???

#$&Q#$)(@#$#@#$%!@#$##%#%()@#$**@@##

Secondary Class: Loudmouth (Self), Level 43

Tertiary Class: Majordomo (Vee Vales), Level 21

Additional Class: Announcer (Vee Vales), Level 14

Additional Class: Hyperthymesiac (Self), Level 5

Additional Class: Curmudgeon (Vee Vales), Level 1

Might: 3

Wit: 38

Faith: 17

Ambition: 29

Greed: 24

Deceptiveness: 28

Manipulativeness: 42

$#&*!@!!: !!!

Loyalty: 49 (+1)

Patience: 11

Irritability: 27

Remorsefulness: 17

Expository Prowess: 23

Pragmatism: #@$%@$

Hop@#!! @#$@!@#

@#$@%%^

#4^5#*&_!+++#(@$#

Citizenship (Bound – Vee Vales): 10

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