“My future?” The girl asked, confused yet thankful by the shift in topic. She had already confronted her mortality enough when she was being chased by the unknown spirit beast a few days ago. She didn’t want to dwell on it further if possible.

  “You are currently out of balance, due in part to our presence. Which while somewhat necessary at the time, is antithetical to our nature.”

  “I don’t feel out of balance.” Willow said while checking herself over. “Is being out of balance bad?” She asked, unsure where her spirit was going with this.

  Change chuckled from his current place above the girl. “If you go by how most of you humans live, it’s not too bad. But to us you’re an eyesore, and it’ll only get worse with time unless you do something about it.” Harmony appeared next to him and gave him a light smack on the top of his head.

  “No need to word it so rudely brother. What he also failed to mention is that with the qi in your core all muddled and out of sync, you will be unlikely to reach your true potential as a binder.”

  Yeah that was bad. If Willow wanted to be a hero and help people she would need all of the potential she could get.

  “So what do you need me to do?” The girl asked with a look of childish determination in her eyes.

  Change rubbed his head while his singular eye glared at his sister. “The simple solution would be to get rid of your fiery friend.” Before Willow could protest at the idea he continued. “Relax, we know you’d never go for that, and frankly we’d like you less if you did.”

  “Which leaves us the more complicated option.” His sister continued while pointedly ignoring her brother’s glare. “You will have to find spirits of the other base elements roughly as strong as your friend and bind them to you. You should theoretically have enough space for all of us if you continue to use the same binding method as before.”

  “Are the base elements the same as the prime elements?” The girl asked, seeking clarification.

  “Depends on what you call the prime elements.” Change said from atop the head of Willow’s projection.

  She began to recite with a songlike cadence, swinging her arms in rhythm.

  “The Earth is the first, and it’s how we start the song.

  Inside of Earth is Metal, which is hard and strong.

  Metal holds the Water tight, it lets go to start the rains.

  Water grows the Wood, and is how we make our grains.

  Wood is burned by Fire, ash and Earth remains.”

  The girl paused and took a breath.

  “If you thought that was the end, then you would be wrong.

  Far outside and in between, lay the Yin and Yang.”

  Her spirits stared at her.

  She did a little bow.

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  Change started clapping.

  “That was adorable child, and a surprisingly almost accurate depiction of the cycle of elemental creation.” Harmony sang with her eyes twinkling in amusement. “The elements listed in the first part of your little song are considered the base elements. In fact you should bind the spirits you need in the order listed there for optimal effect.”

  Willow thought for a moment. “So Earth next?”

  Harmony nodded. “Precisely!”

  She looked at her friend with concern. “How soon do I gotta do this?”

  Change chimed in, standing upside down directly beneath his sister. “By our standards quite soon, by yours not soon at all.”

  Harmony kicked her brother in the shin. “What Change means is that it would be for the best if you managed to bind them within the next few years.”

  “I can do that easily!” Willow said optimistically. She felt like she had forgotten something important though. Oh right! “I need to go and give little flame their proper name now.”

  “Oh, did you think of something?” Change chirped while rubbing his shin “Keep in mind, bigger isn’t always better when it comes to these things. There can be some growing pains if the concept the name embodies is bigger than what the spirit can support.”

  “What about human names?” The girl asked, suddenly concerned she had made a mistake with her name choice for her oldest friend.

  “It varies wildly from spirit to spirit.” Harmony answered, eyes dimming in thought. “They are usually not as tightly woven to their concept, but attain a degree of flexibility in establishing said concept other spirits lack. They are also more likely to attain the ability of human speech from what I understand.”

  Willow was relieved. “So it’s not bad?”

  Harmony shook her head. “The end result will be unpredictable, but not inherently bad no.”

  “And unpredictability can be the spice of life, you know!” Chimed in Change.

  Harmony’s expression showed what she felt about that idea.

  “I’ll be off then.” Willow said while preparing to shift her sense to her first friend's space.

  Harmony and Change both waved, with Change adding. “We’d join you, but your candle friend's realm would be a little cramped with all of us. Besides, this seems like a private moment for the two of you.”

  Willow’s projection waved back before it disappeared from the space with a light pop, then reappeared in a slightly smaller state in the first internal space she had made. The process was a bit smoother than the first two times the girl had done it this day, but not by much. She hoped that her spiritual sense would be fully functional soon, this was getting annoying.

  Her first friend's space was the same as she remembered it. Which made the girl doubly curious about what was going on with the sibling’s spaces. It was a bit cramped even with just the two of them, and her candle flame spirit was clearly surprised to see her. Which was preferable to the dim flickering state Willow noticed they were in when she first moved her sense to the space.

  “Hiya little flame.” The girl said for probably the last time. Which she felt a little said about if she was honest with herself. Even though the name was bad for her spirit, it was what she had called them for the months they were together.

  Her fiery friend sent feelings of concern and relief her way, also some slight confusion as they moved closer to Willow’s projected form in their space.

  “Yeah, this is new to me too, but it does mean I can do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”

  The girl’s projection gave her candle flame spirit a hug. Her friend was initially confused and alarmed, they didn’t want to hurt Willow. However after a moment they realized their friend was perfectly fine and was enjoying the warmth of the hug. So the spirit did the same, unused to physical contact, but enjoying it nonetheless.

  “Thank you for being my friend.” The girl whispered. “It’s been lonely without you.”

  The flame sent back their reciprocation of both statements.

  “I have a gift for you. A proper name so you can grow big and strong.”

  Her friend flared bright in excitement, happy to receive the gift.

  Willow pulled back from the hug a bit so she could properly look at her spirit.

  “The name I chose for you is Eos, I hope you like it.” She said with a shy smile.

  Her little flame, now Eos, shined brighter than they ever had before.