Riss was starting to wonder if she should have stayed in the acting troupe.

Yes, Zigfrid had been horrible, and had bullied her and forced her to stay in it so he could exploit her powers for his own purposes.

But at least she had made some friends in the troupe, like Colum, and Soris, and Tate, and they had generally looked out for her and taken care of her when they could. Except for Zigfrid.

This group of people, though. They were almost all completely crazy, as far as Riss could tell. The red-headed boy and the beautiful lady and the man with the eyepatch were always arguing with each other. The lady with purple-hair she hardly ever saw because she was locked away playing with something called the 'engine'. The man with the hat kept to himself too, always off somewhere playing his lute. And the man in black she was just terrified of, especially since she had projected from his spirit to summon that horrible shadow monster thing back in Farr…

The old man who the beautiful lady called 'Grandfather' wasn't so bad, she supposed.

And the big bald man had promised that he would look out for her when he had come to see her earlier on that day.

So at least there were two of them that she felt she might be able to trust.

But two out of eight wasn't a very big number.

She took another nibble of waybread where she sat with them all in a circle on the 'deck' of the airship eating breakfast. They were talking about something but she wasn't listening. Her tummy was tight and she could only take a little bite of the bread at a time.

Would these people really be able to help her get her beloved Carnelian back? And even if they wanted to, like they said, would they be able to do it? Did they realise just how powerful Zigfrid had become in his use of it?

So far all they had done, apart from helping her to escape the Manyiro, was to take her to a fighting tournament and put her right in the middle of an enormous battle where she had had to summon that shadow monster and nearly died. And they weren't even trying to look for the Carnelian yet. They had decided together that it had to wait while they went to check about another Jewel first. She should never have lent her vote in the discussion to Ryn—she had thought that he would want to go after the Carnelian too, since he and the beautiful lady whom he clearly admired had seemed so interested in it. But then both of them had had other, more pressing interests.

Riss just needed to be patient, she decided. These strange people had said that they would help her to retrieve the Carnelian eventually, so she had to take them at their word that they would. For now, at least.

She became aware that the conversation happening around her had lulled, leaving only the sound of the wind passing over the airship. Even though she hadn't been listening to what they were saying she knew something difficult had been brought up.

The old man, Cid, was looking at her.

Oh no. Had they been talking about her?

"How do you like your breakfast, young lady?" Cid asked.

"Me? Oh. Um. Yes. It's nice, thank you." Riss looked at the deck.

"And how did you sleep?"

"Um. Not too badly. I… I did have some bad dreams, actually."

"Oh? What about, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Well…I always dream about the creatures I've summoned recently. Sometimes I dream about creatures I've summoned a long time ago, too. But last night I had a dream about the creature that I summoned back at that battle in Farr."

The one dressed all in black sat up a little.

"What did you dream about it?" asked Cid.

Riss ran her tongue over her teeth. "I dreamt that it was chasing me through a forest. In a storm. I…I dreamt that it caught me, and put me in its mouth, and swallowed me up."

Cid looked pained. "I'm sorry. That sounds like a nasty nightmare."

"About this 'summoning'," asked the man in black, who never said anything much normally. "I felt a strange sensation when that shadow-demon appeared, like you used me, somehow, to summon it. How did you do that?"

"It is her gift," said the beautiful lady, Nuthea, before Riss could speak. "From the Spirit Carnelian, the Jewel of Suria." Riss's heart beat a little more quickly at the mention of her beloved jewel. "I told you; Lady Riss is Carnelian-touched. She possesses the gift of being able manipulate the element of spirit. She can project summon-beasts based on the spirits of the people to whom she is near. That is what the texts of Oneism say the Carnelian imparts the ability to do. I don't know anything more than that, but that is why she is able to do it."

"So how does it work?" the young man, Ryn, asked.

Why are they talking to me? Riss thought.

They were all looking at her. Since the deck of the ship wasn't swallowing her up like the shadow monster in her dream she was going to have to reply.

"Um, well… When I want to perform a summoning, first I decide who I am going to summon from—myself, or someone else. Then I concentrate on that person. Then I, um… Well, I don't really know how to explain it. Then I just sort of…imagine a creature based on that person, and it appears in front of me."

"So you can change what you summon based on what you imagine?" asked the skysailor. 'Sagar'.

"Um, no, actually. I can't control what creature I summon. I imagine it, but because the imagination is based on that person, I can't imagine it any differently from how I do. That's what it feels like to me, at least. If that makes sense."

"It makes sense," said Nuthea. "The summoning is a projection of the individual's spirit. It is, in essence, an elemental expression of their personality."

"Can you show us?" asked Ryn.

"Um, alright…" said Riss. She wished they would all just leave her alone and stop asking her all these questions, but she supposed they would only do that if she gave them what they wanted. "Who would you like me to project from first?"

"Ooo!" said Sagar, raising a hand. "Me! Do me! Let's see what sort of awesome summon-creature I get!"

"Okay then." Riss realised something. "Though maybe I should say, my summoning is a bit different when I think about doing it with some of you."

"It is?" asked Nuthea, interested. "How so?"

"Well, when I look at some of you with the idea of summoning—with my spirit sight; that's what I call it—I can see colours around you."

"What sort of colours?" asked Cid with clear interest.

"Um." She pointed at Sagar. "Well, for example, he has a grey tint to him." She pointed at Ryn. "But he has a red tint. And you, Mister Cid—you appear very bright, almost like you are glowing."

"Fascinating!" said Cid. "You can see our elemental alignments! That could come in very useful."

Riss shrank back. She didn't want to be 'useful' to anyone. She was done with being used by people.

Cid's face fell. He must have noticed. "I'm sorry. Please: Show us a demonstration of your gift. But only if you would like to. You are under no obligation."

That was a bit better. And at least he had asked nicely.

"…alright then. I'll do Mister Sagar."

She looked at the man, sat leaning back on his hands, with his eye patch and long leather coat. She concentrated, and in her spirit-sight he took on a grey tint. What sort of animal would she project from the spirit of this man, with his slightly scary smile and his confident, determined personality?

Riss held out her hands, and summoned.

"Wolf!" she said, even as she knew she was saying it.

In front of them all in the centre of the circle a magnificent wolf appeared. About twice the size of a regular wolf, it had piercing blue eyes and glossy grey fur. It looked them over, turning a quick circle itself, then thrust its muzzle upwards and howled at the sky. A long, drawn-out, wistful howl.

Then it launched into a run, bounding through the gap between Sagar and Ryn, sprinted a lap of the main deck so fast it made their clothing ripple when it passed them, and leapt over their heads to land back in the middle of the circle.

Riss relaxed her concentration, and the wolf disappeared.

"Yes!" said Sagar immediately, punching the air. "Haha! Awesome! A grey wolf, fast as the wind! I'll take it, half-pint!"

'Half-pint?'

"That was truly astonishing," said Nuthea. "Please, Lady Riss, show us some more. If you don't mind, that is…"

Pleased with their response, Riss obliged her, and summoned for all of them, continuing around the circle. She had often performed the same trick for her Manyiro friends, but the travellers here seemed to find it even more delightful than they had, were that possible.

For each of them she briefly summoned a different spirit-projection, had it carry out a brief performance, like a sort of dance routine, and then un-summoned it so that she wouldn't get too tired. She felt a little nervous each time, but hoped that no more nightmare monsters would surprise her.

From Miss Nuthea she summoned a beautiful, gigantic golden eagle. Instead of a bald head it had gold plumage all over its body. When it beat its wings they crackled with lightning which made her new companions gasp with wonder

From Miss Elrann she summoned a great purple anteater that ran to and fro between the party members with clever claws and questing tongue which made them coo at its cuteness and cheekiness. It was one of the stranger creatures she had summoned.

From Mister Cid she summoned an enormous white owl. It flew and perched on Sagar's ship's wheel where it stayed observing them a few moments, hooted a couple of times, then disappeared in a flash of light, leaving behind a few snowy feathers which vanished when they touched the ground.

From Mister Huld she summoned a huge brown bear of a similar shape to one she had seen when traveling with the Manyiro in Farr. It was able to do earth-projection, and made some of the wood of the ship's deck rise up to form a tall tree trunk, which it then climbed, before roaring down at them from above and then sinking back down into the floor along with the structure.

From Mister Quel she summoned a dolphin. It just appeared there on the deck, sleek and shining, and she feared that it would suffocate. But then it opened its mouth and laughed—the strange palyful, clicking laugh of a dolphin—and water sprayed out of its blowhole, soaking the deck, and it skidded along in it, flapping its flippers and continuing to laugh and spray out more water so that it slid around their circle. Riss worried that someone would be cross with her for getting the deck, and them, wet, but nobody seemed to mind.

She skipped Mister Vish without mentioning it. She did not want to summon that shadow monster again. She did not want to have more nightmares. Vish had a dark tint to him which she supposed must mean he was 'shadow-aligned', but she reasoned the others must know this already, so she didn't mention it.

From Mister Ryn she summoned…

…a squirrel.

A small, brown-and-red squirrel with buck teeth and a bushy tail, no bigger than the ordinary variety of squirrel.

It appeared in the middle of the circle on the deck, looked about at all of them with nervous, beady eyes, twitched slightly, and then burped a small flame.

Sagar collapsed on his back laughing.

"Why is he laughing?" Riss asked, puzzled.

"Why am I laughing?" Sagar replied between guffaws. "Why am I laughing? Because I got a wind wolf, the princess got a lightning eagle, and the pup got a kufeing squirrel! Ahahahahaha!" He wiped tears away from his eyes.

"Watch your language in front of the little one," said Cid.

"I think it's cute," said Nuthea.

Ryn's cheeks had gone as red as the squirrel's fur. Confusion creased Riss's forehead. She still didn't understand what there was to laugh about, or why Ryn looked so uncomfortable.

"You might like to know," she said, hoping it would help, "that even though I can't change people's spirit-animal projections, it doesn't mean it will stay like that forever. Some people's projections change over time, or can even change depending on their mood, I think. I don't know why, but it happens sometimes. Oh, and look, yours is changing now…"

The squirrel was growing. It had almost doubled in size already, and begun to growl. Its mouth and nose started to move forward, elongating its face, and bat-like wings appeared between its hands, now starting to sprout claws, and its waist. Meanwhile, Ryn's blush had gone, replaced by a furious scowl.

"Oh no, save us!" said Sagar. "Now it's a giant flying bat-squirrel! Help! Help!" He collapsed back into his fit of laughter.

The squirrel shrank back to its original size. Ryn looked at the floor.

Riss let the squirrel disappear.

"Why did that happen, I wonder?" asked Nuthea.

"Spirits are not static," said Cid. "We can make choices, and change, and mature, influencing our spirits. It makes sense that elemental projections of them can therefore change too."

"What are you going on about, old timer?" said Sagar breathlessly. "It's simple: Ryn got angry, so the squirrel got angry. Angry Flying Bat-Squirrel! That's all it was."

Ryn objected, and they all started arguing, but Riss tuned it out. Heaviness pulled at her limbs. It had taken a lot of energy to summon all of those spirit animals.

She took another bite of waybread. Eating came a bit more easily now. She could even taste it better—sweet, if a bit on the tough side.

Summoning all of those spirit animals had also done something else. It had shown her something more about each of the companions and helped her to work out some more about who she could trust. It was difficult not to learn something more about someone after summoning from them. She now decided she could trust Mister Ryn, Mister Quel and Miss Nuthea to keep her safe, in addition to Mister Cid and Mister Huld. She had liked all of their animals—they were good, and friendly, though some more powerful than others.

Mister Sagar's grey wolf she was a little less sure about. And she still felt terrified of Mister Vish's shadow monster. At least none of the others had caused her to summon nightmares.

The conversation had paused again. She looked up. Had someone asked her something?

"Pardon?"

"How about your own projection?" Cid asked her again. "What is your own spirit-animal, young lady Riss?"

"Um..." Riss foundered. Nobody had ever asked before.

"Is it a dragon," asked Ryn, "like the one you summoned at the play in Shun-Pei?"

"No. That was the creature that I summoned from Zigfrid."

"But when he summoned a big blue lion appeared."

"That's right. But I think that what the animal is can also change based on who is doing the summoning. Even though we can't choose what it is, the person doing the summoning still affects what the projection is."

"We see ourselves differently from how others see us…" said Nuthea, and Cid nodded approvingly at her.

"So what do you summon for yourself?" the old man asked again. "Can you show us? Only if you want to, of course..."

At least he wasn't forcing her. Technically. Riss supposed that she could summon him, even though she had never done so in front of anyone else before.

She focused on herself, put out her hand, and said "Rabbit."

Her little green bunny rabbit appeared in the middle of the circle. His his long floppy ears were folded down. He gave a little squeak.

"This is Nibbler…" said Riss shyly.

"Lovely!" said Nuthea.

"Too cute!" said Elrann. "O hai Nibbler! Nice to meet ya!"

"A friend for Ryn's bat-squirrel," joked Sagar.

Nibbler ran round the circle, then came over to Riss and snuggled into her lap. She stroked him behind his ears, glad that he had been accepted by the group. Well, some of them, anyway…

"I must say," said Cid, "your powers are truly astonishing, young lady Riss."

"Um…thank you. They are a part of me."

"Indeed. I have just one more question for you, if you don't mind."

Riss tensed. What more was there to ask, or to show? She had hoped the questions would be over by now.

"Um. Yes?"

"What would happen if you projected from the spirit of more than one person at a time? Can you project multiple spirit-animals at once?"

Nibbler disappeared.

"I've never thought about that before…" Riss said slowly. Why was the old man asking her this? He was supposed to be the kind and gentle one, not someone who would push her to explore new limits of her powers. That was what Zigfrid had always tried to do. She wasn't sure if she liked the idea of projecting from more than person.

But they were all still looking at her, expecting an answer.

"I suppose I could try to project from more than one person at once, and see what happens…"

"Only if you want to, young lady, of course…but I would be very interested to see if it was possible."

Riss took a deep breath. "Alright. I will try. Who would you like me to project from together?"

"Do me and the princess," said Sagar, showing a toothy smile. "An unbeatable combination. We're meant to be together."

"Oh, shut up, Sagar," said Ryn.

"What?" said Sagar. "She's not denying it."

"I think," said Nuthea, "we should let Lady Riss decide who she wants to project from."

Riss looked round them all with her spirit-sight. On the contrary, she decided she would project from Nuthea and Ryn. Their red and gold seemed to go better together than gold and grey, and she liked them better as a pair as well. She told them her choice.

"Grrrr," said Sagar. "Fine. Have it your way, half-pint…"

Riss focused on Ryn and Nuthea at the same time. She hadn't ever done this before but it made sense that it could be possible. It took more effort than usual, but she held them both in sight and mind, drew in her breath, and put out her hands.

"Phoenix!" she heard herself yell.

A massive bird burst into flame in the middle of the circle. Riss had to stand up and step back. The others shuffled backwards and put their hands up to shield themselves too.

It had red-gold plumage, topped off with long regal head-feathers, and was even larger than Nuthea's eagle had been. It stood in the centre of the circle and looked at the party members with glowing eyes.

Also, it was on fire and fizzed with crackling lightning at the same time.

Riss gritted her teeth and her hands trembled with effort. This was difficult. She had to concentrate really hard to keep the phoenix present, doubly hard compared with summoning a single spirit animal. She wasn't going to be able to keep this up for long.

But it was interesting. To her as well. She held the phoenix in existence for a bit longer to work out what had happened. It turned out double-projecting hadn't resulted in two animals, but one combined, fused spirit animal…

Her head started to throb with pain.

Just a bit longer… It's so beautiful…

There were more colours leaping within the flames and crackling sparks. Not just reds and golds but blues, greens, purple.

Her vision started to blur.

Just a little longer…

She saw the black form of Vish on the other side of the phoenix, looking up at it, and lost her concentration for a moment. The phoenix flickered in and out of presence. She forced herself to concentrate again.

The phoenix's feathers turned black. Thick shadows joined the fire and lightning, darkness and light jostling for the same space. It started to grow even bigger, and its beak stretched out horribly, into a long, wicked snout filled with rows of sharp shining teeth.

Riss screamed.

"Watch out!" yelled Nuthea. "End it!"

The next thing Riss knew she was staring up at the grey blimp of the airship, her limbs floppy, held by Ryn.

She had fainted and he had caught her.

"What happened?" he said as he helped her to sit down. Her head throbbed horribly.

"She accidentally incorporated Vish into the summon," said Cid, kneeling nearby.

"That's right…" Riss said quietly, as much to herself as them. "It was too difficult to keep the double projection present for very long… I lost control of it and brought in a projection from Mister Vish as well by accident…"

"I am sorry, young lady," said Cid. "I did not mean for you to push yourself beyond what you were capable of."

Riss almost said "It's okay," out of habit, but she really wouldn't have meant it.

She was less and less sure of how trustworthy Cid was. And even more uncertain of Vish than ever. But she felt a little more trusting of Ryn, and Nuthea.

And, while she had strained beyond her limit, she was definitely going to be practicing doing some more double summons in the future.