At this point a codex will become available. Stories about this world and its religions will start to accumulate. Dry reading can give your imagination context and a foundation.
Achievement unlocked. Pick a special skill out of the Owl’s Gifts power-up list.
Gage sat at the dining table in the monastery kitchen while Rachel pushed a cup of tea at him.
“Cut it out,” Gage said.
“You look like something I scraped off my boot. Drink the damned tea.”
“Just get me out of here.”
“I don’t think so. I can’t halt a murder investigation just because you’re struck with the vapors.”
“Hey!” Gage snapped. “Some bird has just claimed a kinship with me closer than marriage. Excuse me if I feel slightly rebellious.”
“All right, Gage, all right.”
Without warning the owl flew through the wide kitchen doorway and perched on the back of one of the table chairs. As the chair rocked with the owl’s weight, Gage lifted a boot and stomped on the seat to steady the wobble.
“Thank you,” said Wrigley, inches from Gage’s face.
“You’re welcome. And goodbye.” Gage stood and beckoned to Rachel.
“Would you consider making the Eastern Brotherhood your home?” Wrigley asked.
“A monastery!” exclaimed Gage. “Are you addled? Besides, what difference does it make where I call home?”
“I would prefer to live here in contemplation. Since you find the idea repugnant, though, I am willing to live at your house.”
“At my house!”
“As bonded Companions,” Wrigley said, “our path forward in life is an inseparable one.”
“What!” shouted Gage. If he thought it would help he would have knocked his palm against his ears. He could not be hearing this right.
Rachel grabbed him by the shoulder. “Stop squawking worse than the bird.”
Wrigley’s ears twitched at the term and his eyes, unblinking, watched them both.
“Don’t take his side, Rachel,” said Gage.
“I am not on his side. I’m on the side of reason. I’ve never seen you behave so childishly. What in the world is the matter?”
“The matter? Maybe I don’t want to spend the rest of my life tied to an emoting beak. Maybe I had other plans for my life and who would be special to me.”
“You, Gage?” laughed Rachel. “Women follow you like shadows and you hardly notice. Who could you possibly be thinking of?”
Gage swallowed hard. Wrigley, seeing it all, stayed quiet.
“Possibly,” Gage said slowly, “I could be thinking of you.”
“Me? How fickle do you think I am? I’m your best friend. Do you think I would abandon you just because you now have a Companion?”
Gage stared at Rachel’s open, unsuspecting face. “Your best friend.”
“Only your best friend would listen to all the whining you’ve just done and not smack you on the head for it.”
“A best friend or a wife.”
“I pity the woman who loses her heart to you, my friend.” Rachel slapped him on the back and walked away.
Gage, romantic dreams ground to dust, said, “I’m glad your heart is safe, then.” He looked at Wrigley, who still watched him closely. “And my heart, pal, seems to appeal to no one but you.”
“So,” Wrigley said. “Your house it is.”
Did you take Night Vision as your first power-up skill? Maybe you chose Eyes in the Back of His Head, a very handy fight augment. Of course, you really wanted Claw Grip — who doesn’t? — but it’s not available at Level 1.
Some bonuses you see in the Skill Chain are dark. You might want to start thinking about your build now, while your Companion relationship is still young. Only a closely bonded pair can unlock the shadowed top tier. And you’re not quite sure what choices will turn these two individuals into a team.
“At least he doesn’t poop on the floor,” Gage muttered. He stood in the doorway to Wrigley’s room, a meticulously clean space. A very large opening, more a missing section of the wall than a window, dominated one side. Crisscrossing the room were heavily supported bars. Perching on one, Wrigley invited him in.
“Welcome,” he said.
Looking around, Gage remarked, “I didn’t know an owl could be a pack rat.” Floor-to-ceiling shelves overflowed with knick-knacks, books, tack, clothing, microscopes, and athletic equipment. Wrigley’s perches provided him access to his gear, but they also caged in the more unwieldy items. “You have more stuff squirreled away in this room than I’ve seen in my whole life.” Hearing his own comment, Gage smirked.
Wrigley’s unblinking eyes stared at him. “If you insist on making animal puns, our life together is going to become very annoying.”
“Sorry.” Gage actually blushed. “It’s all pretty new to me.”
“Many Companions in the monastery are bonded. I am new to the bond, too, but I have seen many kinds of relationships, if you want to ask me anything.”
“All right. What’s the weirdest relationship you’ve ever seen?”
“The weirdest?” Wrigley asked. “Father Anselm is bonded to a small wild boar. He met her on pilgrimage in the desert, and she seems very exotic to someone like me.”
“Exotic?”
“Not a domestic animal, like you’d see around a town or a farm.”
“You haven’t traveled much?”
“I’ve never left the monastery.”
“Uh oh,” said Gage. Wrigley stared out the window while his ears swiveled with nervousness. “Could we be any more different?”
“I always thought I would bond with a monk,” Wrigley said quietly.
“And I always thought — well.” He may not have said the name “Rachel” but Wrigley heard it all the same.
Wrigley sighed and looked around at his overladen shelves. “I’ll have to make some choices about my stuff.”
“When was the last time you cataloged this display?”
“About a week ago.” Gage lifted an eyebrow in doubt. “My whole life is on these shelves. If I didn’t know this,” he said as he spread a wing around his room, “I wouldn’t know me.” Gage, realizing that the majority of these items could have no place in their lives, felt sad for someone besides himself for the first time since the bonding.
“I guess we’re in this together, pal. Neither one of us is seeing sunshine on the horizon.”
“But I believe, Gage. I believe the Lord has a plan for us.”
“Sorry, Wrigley. I wish you’d gotten a monk, too, because I don’t believe and I’d really rather never hear about it again.”
Wrigley stared, but when Gage didn’t back down, he turned to grooming his feathers. Gage felt completely ignored until Rachel joined them.
“Are you two playing together nicely?” Rachel asked. She stood in the doorway and settled into her at-ease position.
Gage pursed his lips. “Brace yourself, Wrigley.”
“Why?” Wrigley asked.
“Because Rachel’s got that ‘I smell a rat and you’re it’ look.”
“Never serious, are you?” Rachel frowned at Gage. He shrugged. “However –” Gage interrupted her with a snort. “– I do have some questions for the owl.”
“He’s got a name, Rachel.”
“Wrigley,” Rachel began, “you know the shopkeeper’s son was named Tom. What was your relationship with him?”
Wrigley hopped to a lower perch so that he could be eye-to-eye with Rachel. “Tom wanted to join the Brotherhood. He came up here to be around the monks.”
“Did he come up here often? Did he become, maybe, a bit of a pest?”
“Tom was –” Suddenly Wrigley rotated his head away, so that Rachel and Gage were looking at the back of it. Gage ducked under the perch and came up to look Wrigley in the face.
An owl can’t cry; no emotion was visible in Wrigley’s eye. Gage could feel Wrigley’s sorrow like a wave, though. As bonded Companions, their connection had already begun. Rachel watched as Gage, expressing his partner’s emotions, teared up while Wrigley continued talking in his calm voice.
“Tom was beloved. Every unbonded Companion here wished to connect with him and every monk brightened in his presence.”
“I’m sorry to pain you, Wrigley, but I must explore the option that not everyone felt that way. This gentle young man you describe was brutally murdered. We must find the monk who did this.”
Wrigley’s head rotated back to look at Rachel. “Of course, Constable. I’ll help any way I can.”
“Then walk with us, Wrigley,” Rachel said. “Your counsel is welcome and necessary.”
“I would be pleased to join you, but I don’t walk.”
“How do you interact here, then?” Gage asked. “You can’t fly everywhere.”
“Sometimes I ride. Certain monks are willing to bear me on their shoulder.”
Gage looked at Wrigley’s claws and winced. “Really?”
“Well, the brave ones.” At the last minute Wrigley ruined the insult with an involuntary wink. Gage reached out and tweaked a wing feather. Surprised, Wrigley clacked his beak at Gage’s finger.
Patting his shoulder, Gage said, “Come on, big guy, I can take it.” Wrigley hopped over and Gage mock-staggered. “Cripes, you’re heavy. Cut back on the mice, would you?” He ducked through the door and carried them out into the yard.
As Gage stepped into the sunlight, Wrigley’s head swiveled to look at a shadow overhead. Talons digging deep, he launched into the sky. All playfulness left Gage as he dipped down with the pain. Blood poured from his shoulder.
Rachel, turning at the disturbance, hurried to Gage’s side and helped him. In fury, she looked to the sky.
The pinned raptors around the yard fussed and ruffled. Mistress Bronwen came running. “What’s happened?”
“The owl just ripped a chunk out of my friend’s arm!”
“No, why are the birds upset? Why did Wrigley take to the air so suddenly?”
Rachel looked at Bronwen without comprehending, and then took in her surroundings. Out came her sword and up went her shield. Gage, holding his shoulder, stood and scanned the sky.
A shadow and a flap of wings. Bronwen readied her falconer’s gauntlet and Wrigley landed on it, Bronwen giving a heavy grunt as she took the weight.
“A strange bird, Mistress,” said Wrigley. “I don’t even recognize its breed. Colorful.”
“What was it doing here, Wrigley?” she asked.
“Unknown. When it saw me, it dived and disappeared.”
“It saw you and hid,” said Rachel. “Suspicious.”
“Do you think it is involved in your case, Constable?”
“Possibly. I won’t jump to conclusions. I still want to continue my investigation here. But can we trace that bird and learn more about it?” Rachel looks to Mistress Bronwen for an authoritative answer.
Bronwen, already on the move and gesturing to her crew, called over her shoulder, “We’ll send some hunters up and see what they can find.” As she passed a perch she gave a toss for Wrigley and he hopped over. Only then did Wrigley notice Gage and his shoulder.
“Oh, no. Did I do that?”
“Yeah. I”m going to need a temporary rig. Leather, harnesses. I’ll be in your tack room for a few minutes.”
“I’m sorry, Gage.”
“My fault, buddy. I wasn’t thinking. I need my right arm free and you need to be ready to launch. We’ll work it out.”
Gage headed away, focused on solving the problem. Although they were an early Companion team, Wrigley could sense that his partner was not as content as he seemed.
“Constable, I feel badly. I hurt him.”
Rachel tapped her gauntlet against her shield and shrugged. “He’ll live.”
What kind of shoulder harness will you build? You have a crafting table and your choice of resources in the tack room station. As you look about the room (don’t forget to find that barrel under the loft staircase) you’ll gather recipes and materials. Some rigs will be sturdier, with a trade-off in stamina usage. The lighter ones will hamper your fighting reaction times due to impact from owl flight.
Harness upgrades come with leveling of your character, but also relationship consequences with your Companion. In the shadowy top tier is Share the Load, a rig that restores your resources during battle.