"That was awesome," Lia enthused, once we entered the small cave we had used months before, right after we arrived in this area. The cave wasn't some glorious domicile, but it was good enough to spend a few days in, giving me time to either set up something better or quickly finish my business here and return to the tower.

"True, this was something else," I admitted. Just watching my daughter had been fascinating, the way she had demonstrated new tricks, using her body and power in ways I had never seen before. It made me want to have her repeat those tricks in controlled circumstances, maybe with a battery of divination spells around her body so I could discern just what she was doing and how it worked, but that would have to wait until we got back home.

"Some fancy new tricks you got there," I grinned, curious if Lia had fully realised what she had done during our trip.

"Mhm, I've been working on the wall-climbing for a while," she replied, a smug grin on her face, only to look confused when I started to chuckle.

"The wall-climbing was the least of the tricks you showed, dear." I shook my head, "Did you notice that you stopped putting your weight on the snow as we went? Or that you occasionally moved at a speed that would make you look like you are teleporting when viewed from a close distance?" I asked, my voice filled with mirth at my daughter's ignorance of her own ability. She would have to work on that, especially if she wanted to replicate these skills.

"I did?" The look in her eyes was one of confusion, "I know I stepped through the shadows, but you recognise that, so how did I do those things?"

"You can be quite stubborn, Lia," I was still grinning as I laid out my thoughts on the matter, "It was a race and, if I'm being honest, I was cheating as much as necessary. You probably were unwilling to lose, especially as you are supposed to have a physical advantage by virtue of your Vampiric powers and general focus on physical skills and attributes," I explained, getting a nod in return.

"That desire, alongside your stubborn nature," I gently poked her head at that, "They probably combined and your subconscious allowed you to use specialised abilities, either inherent to your race or your class, giving you the tools to match, and even beat, me." I paused again, "Well, to try beating me."

"Oy, I won fair and square," she complained, despite both of us knowing that there had been no winner; both of us had stepped through the shadows into this cave at the same time, causing us both to emerge from the same shadow. I doubted there was any way to discern who had entered the cave first. It was, quite frankly, as close a draw as possible, partially because I had been unwilling to teleport into the cave until I was forced to do so by her teleport.

"Eh, let's call it a draw, and we can move on to have you try to figure out these new tricks. Unless you want to have them come out accidentally, without truly understanding what you are doing?" I asked, my tone making my disapproval of the idea evident.

"No, I want to figure them out. These tricks sound powerful," she exclaimed, getting a nod of approval from me.

"Good. While I can tell you what I observed, I'm afraid I don't know just what mental processes you need to activate these powers. It's going to be on you, unless you have some idea what I might be able to do to help," I admitted with a shrug.

"Could you make the cave bigger? If that blurry speed is physical speed, I'll probably need some space to figure it out. I have no desire to run into walls, and the Sun will come up eventually, even if the days are quite short now," she suggested, and I nodded again before quickly opening the cave up. Compared to the magical construction I had been working on lately, this was simple.

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Soon, I was sitting on a somewhat comfortable chair near the cave's entrance, ready to conjure a few scrying constructs. Behind me, in an almost gymnasium-sized cave, Lia was running back and forth, trying to conjure up the super-speed I had seen during our run. I had watched her for a few minutes already, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do to help her. She'd either figure the trick out, or we would have to come up with some way to help her, maybe another run or something along those lines. Regardless, we were now aware of the possibility, so I was confident she'd eventually figure it out.

And, for now, I had something else to do anyway. Namely, check in on the giants, see how they are doing, maybe push and prod their development in a direction I approve of and make sure that they will last the winter. Waste not, want not, and all that. I had no desire to have my efforts to bring them here go to waste.

My ravens easily took wing, flying into the darkness of the local night. As far north as we were now, the Sun only came out for maybe eight hours each day, and some of that was spent hiding behind clouds, making both Lia and me quite happy to be here. Additionally, the air remained below freezing at all times, creating a comfortable climate for me. This might just be the perfect region for me to thrive. Maybe I would be able to find other Firn Elves at some point; they might make for a good species to settle in this region.

My magical constructs were luckily unaffected by the cold, at least by cold on this level, and quickly made their way through the air towards the different spots where I had settled the giants.

When my first construct reached its destination, I had to swallow a curse. The location was abandoned, with few tracks remaining, telling of the giant's departure. Going by what the raven could see, the giant had been gone for weeks, possibly leaving the area as soon as my mental presence wasn't there to influence it further. Trying to follow its tracks was impossible; they had been swallowed by the forest a long time ago, leaving me nothing to go on in there.

The next raven had better luck, even better than I anticipated. There, the giant was still in the small cave I had selected, though it wasn't just one giant. The giant I had settled there had managed to attract a mate and, by the looks of it, the two were getting on quite well. Domestically well, without the power-dynamics I had observed in either of the two giant couples I had observed before. It also looked like this pair had a good amount of supplies stored for the winter, making me nod in approval. I might have to look in on them again, but this initial, cursory observation was quite promising.

It also took away the sting of discovering another abandoned location. After all, the giant I had already observed living with its partner couldn't be in two places at once, which, in turn, made me wonder if that first giant was somewhere else.

As it turned out, that was exactly the case. Only, in this case, the giant wasn't living with a single partner. Half the settled giants had decided to form a single group, all five living together. I would have to study that particular dynamic quite a bit. It went against what I had anticipated in a significant way, especially as it looked like Naya, the giantess I had interacted with first, was the leader of this group. Not a dominant male of some kind, despite there being two males in evidence, but Naya, the comparatively weak female. It would be fascinating to see how this worked.

That fascination was reinforced when I realised that the last three giants had teamed up as well, a single male living together with two females. There, it looked like the male was dominant, though not in a physical way. That singular male was the one I had named Runt, for his comparatively diminutive size, but, from what I could casually observe, he made up for his smaller size in other ways. Possibly by being an excellent provider, the threesome had more food stored away than the five giants living together, all well-preserved and stored, a good mix of berries, nuts, meat and fish, making me think that these three had the best chance to make it through the winter.

Leaning back, I started to make notes on this largely unexpected development, quietly cursing the fact that I hadn't been around to observe. I would have to figure out a way to keep an eye on the giants, even when I was away. I wanted to observe, and guide, their cultural and societal development so they would become a group I could tolerate as my neighbours.

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