Fay approached the bison as if she were walking up to a shrine that might bite.
It was no common beast. It stood more than three meters tall, all horn and muscle.
"Fay. I trusted you with the treasure. It's just a bison now. Move." Radeon said, encouraging her.
He watched and saw the fear in the tightness of her shoulders, in the way her breath caught.
Fay's hands still reached out, though, slow and trembling with wonder.
Her fingers found the creature's foreleg, warm and corded beneath the fur.
Radeon let his surplus of vitality spill through her like a quiet current and then he drew it onward into the bison.
His own technique, borrowed in shape from an older art but fed with life instead of qi.
The manual's memory rose with it, the imprint of the tamer who had penned the method.
In his mind's eye the man had no face at all, only a blank where features should have been.
Radeon did not pry. Some doors opened onto heights that snapped weaker necks.
