The second the words were out, objective expressions broke to warm smiles. The medallion and its chain lowered to the boy's hands, broken at a link and pulled apart. Each end followed his hands as he leaned, bringing them around Bariyan's neck, where there the chain was linked anew and grew as Martin's hands drew away, pulling the medal along. He was one shape again as he bowed his head and kissed it, fealty to his new contract. In letting it go, the chain shortened, so as to not be taken off so easily – if ever.

He laid hands on Bariyan, cupping his face by the jaw, and leaned forward again, kissing his brow before withdrawing again, fingers curling and drawing to each other. In them, a tooth – one of Bariyan's. It was the cornerstone, in a sense; everything had to built up from something. Flesh couldn't stand alone without bone to hold it up.

The billowing cloak of gold and light pulsed and drew him away a small length while the little tooth grew and changed in-hand. All the rest was a blazing light that overtook sight and color...and ebbed away to nothing.

Martin's feet settled into the dirt beneath them, eased into gravity and the space surrounding him by unseen hands. They held him steady, tilted his head up, and opened his mouth to breathe in – loud and long, shocking the body to life, eyes snapping open, wide and yellow and alert from the start.

Freed and awake, he wavered, feeling the chill air and his own weight in space. His stare dropped and fixed on Bariyan. Squeezing all the life of something after life into something with new life...it was taking him time to fully register it. He felt his fingers twitch and his skin prickle – but no dreadful warning, like the monster hunter. It was chilly, and when something really exciting was happening, there were always goosebumps.

He held the next breath, mouth twitching on one side. Real...