Not yet, you still have work to do

As tired as you are, there is still a lot of business you need to handle now before you let yourself take a nap. First, there are the remaining prompts from before your death.

Let it be known!
By sacrificing your own life without a second's hesitation to save the lives of those under your command, and for doing exactly what you knew needed to be done without allowing yourself to become paralyzed by the potential consequences, you have manifested a deeper aspect of your Alignment. Your Alignment has shifted to Altruistic (+2) and Decisive (+1). All beings with a similar Alignment will view you and your actions much more favorably, and all beings with an opposed Alignment will view you and your actions much less favorably. Always remember, your actions reveal the truth of your heart.

Also:

Congratulations! Your familiar has advanced to level 12.

As an Astral Jaguar, Riama gains forty-four Attribute points to distribute and her Agility, Speed, and Luck increase by eleven. She also gains eleven Ability Advancement points. As she is your Soul Familiar, you may distribute her points or allow her to distribute them herself in any combination.

You still aren't really sure what Alignment does for you aside from the obvious, but nothing bothers you about being known as both altruistic and decisive, so you shrug and simply dismiss that prompt. You also set Riama's advancement to the side for the moment.

Next, you have five levels worth of Attribute points, Skill progression, and Talent points to distribute. You decide to assign 5 points each -- one per level -- to Intuition, Willpower, and Charisma; they are the primary Attribute for your four current schools of magic. You debate the exact distribution of the points between Willpower and Intuition for a while, since Intuition powers up two schools to Willpower's one, but Willpower also contributes to Concentration and the school it enhances, Animamancy, looks like it may end up being a big part of your future, so you decide to just do the 5-5-5 split. For the other 15 Attribute points you have to spend, you just top off various other Attributes to aesthetically-pleasing numbers and put the last two into Luck, which certainly hasn't done you wrong so far.

You take a quick survey of your Skills before deciding where to spend the extra progression there, and end up spending 50% worth on Beast Magic to bump it back up above 5 for the additional Novice rank spell and the remaining 75% in Fire Magic.

Congratulations! You have reached level 5 in Beast Magic. You are now a Novice in Beast Magic; all non-sapient animals will be one step more tolerant of you.

Congratulations! You have learned a new spell, Summon Steed.
Summon Steed: Beast Magic, level 5. This spell summons an unremarkable mount suitable to the current terrain: horses for grasslands, goats for mountains, deer for forests, and so on. The steed will be large enough and sturdy enough to bear you as a rider and will never balk or attempt to dislodge you, however, it is not suited for combat. The steed comes with appropriate riding gear, though not with any storage containers. Cost: 200 Concentration. Duration: Concentration, up to 8 hours. Cast Time: 1 minute. Cooldown: 4 hours.

Well... you mentally mark "buy a horse and saddle" and "break horse to saddle and rider" off your to-do list. That spell isn't quite as good as having an actual mount, but it will do for your current needs and you can still ride Brighid for emergencies -- and pleasure.

Then comes Talent points. You already know what you're doing with the first 10 points:

Fire Link I -- Requirements: As Above, So Below I, Firepower I. Effect: While you are maintaining a Fire Magic spell or ritual, including with Crown of the Exalted, your familiar's attacks deal an additional 10% damage as fire damage. Cost: 5 points.
Life Link I -- Requirements: As Above, So Below I, Lifeforce I. Effect: While you are maintaining a Vivimancy ritual, including with Crown of the Exalted, your familiar heals 1% of her total Health and 2% of her total Stamina per second. Cost: 5 points.

That opens up the expected second rank in each Talent for double the total effect at double the price. You also decide to at least take the first rank in Altered Beast and Soul Caliber; you wish you'd done the latter before Bannagh Macht, now, but oh well.

Altered Beast I -- Requirements: Weave the Strands I, Level 1 in Beast Magic. Effect: +5% effectiveness of alterations made to creatures’ physical form with magic. Cost: 2 points
Soul Caliber I -- Requirements: Weave the Strands I, Level 1 in Animamancy. Effect: -5% experience cost for magic. Cost: 2 points

Again, this opens up the expected second rank of each Talent, as well as two new Talents branching off from As Above, So Below:

Beast Link I -- Requirements: As Above, So Below I, Altered Beast I. Effect: While you are maintaining a Beast Magic spell or ritual upon yourself, including with Crown of the Exalted, your familiar gains a +5% bonus to her physical Attributes. Cost: 5 points.
Soul Link I -- Requirements: As Above, So Below I, Soul Caliber I. Effect: While you are maintaining an Animanancy ritual, including with Crown of the Exalted, your familiar gains a +5% bonus to her mental Attributes. Cost: 5 points.

Oh, Hell yes, that isn't even a question. You immediately spend the points and again the second ranks of both Talents open up. That leaves you with 27 Talent points and you look over your options. You're still not sold on Ad-Libbed Admixture, you still can't make use of Blending of Schools, and you're not really willing to spend a bunch of talent points for diminishing returns on your other Talents just yet. You do go ahead and take the second rank of Soul Caliber, though.

Soul Caliber II -- Requirements: Soul Caliber I. Effect: -5% experience cost [Total -10%] for magic. Cost: 4 points

You briefly wonder whether you could reduce XP costs to zero with that Talent, but that would cost 2^20 points just for the final rank. Even with getting 10 points instead of 5 per level, you doubt you would ever be able to accumulate that many. Regardless, you decide to hold onto the remaining 23 points for now; one of your short term goals is to learn another school of magic suitable for use as offensive magic, to open up another avenue of attack for creatures that are resistant to fire. You still can't help but feel like Cai might not have died in the first place if you had magic which could hurt the dakhols. You're pretty sure that when you do learn another school of magic, more Talents will open up for you.

Next, you turn your attention to your familiar. You stretch your arm out towards where the astral jaguar is sleeping atop Brighid's dining table and try to beckon her mentally. She lifts her head from her paws and looks at you, then goes back to sleep. Typical cat, you think to yourself.

You actually have to think pretty hard about how to spend Riama's Attribute points. Her Abilities indicate that she is sort of a rogue-type creature, intended to be highly mobile and attack from hiding with massive damage before slipping back into the shadows for another attack, but her small size means that she just doesn't have the physical capacity to be incredibly strong, and she will always be more susceptible to massive damage than a larger creature. Additionally, she is supposedly capable of casting any magic you can, which could be a huge asset if you build up her Concentration and can figure out how to actually get her to cast the spells. Ultimately, you decide to table the Attribute points for just a moment and check out her Ability Advancement points; maybe you'll uncover something new which will help make up your mind.

You focus on Riama's Ability Advancement points and three new windows pop up in your mind, describing each of her current Abilities.

Empathic Bond I: An empathic bond links master and familiar. You and your familiar can transmit basic emotions [hunger, fear, etc] to each other while in close proximity. Do you wish to advance your familiar's Empathic Bond Ability at the cost of 1 Ability Advancement point?
Shadow Pounce I: An astral jaguar can teleport from shadow to shadow and follow up the movement with an instantaneous attack. Maximum range 10 meters. Cooldown: 15 seconds. Do you wish to advance your familiar's Shadow Pounce Ability at the cost of 1 Ability Advancement point?
Steal Destiny I: An astral jaguar can steal the destiny of its prey by latching on to the back of its neck with its jaws. Deals 5-10 base Health damage immediately, and target takes 1 Health damage per second and gains the Steal Destiny status as long as the jaguar remains attached to their neck. Do you wish to advance your familiar's Steal Destiny Ability at the cost of 1 Ability Advancement point?

Well, that isn't very helpful. You only get the option to advance the Abilities, without an actual preview of just what advancing them will do. Still, just from the descriptions, you have at least a vague idea of what they'll get better at. With such a lack of information, there really isn't much sense dithering about, so you go ahead and invest the first point into Empathic Bond, figuring that better communication will always be worthwhile.

Empathic Bond II: An empathic bond links master and familiar. You and your familiar can transmit complex emotions to each other while you are within line of sight. Riama gains increased mental capacity and +10% to base Senses, Logic, and Intuition. Do you wish to advance your familiar's Empathic Bond Ability at the cost of 2 Ability Advancement points?

Well, well, well. So it isn't just a straight upgrade to the existing parameters, it actually adds new parameters as well. The cost, of course, also increases, though. You decide to go ahead and increase her other two Abilities to their second rank as well, just to see how they advance.

Shadow Pounce II: An astral jaguar can teleport from shadow to shadow and follow up the movement with an instantaneous attack. After attacking, the jaguar can use any remaining teleportation distance to travel to a new shadow within range. Maximum range 12.5 meters. Cooldown: 14 seconds. Do you wish to advance your familiar's Shadow Pounce Ability at the cost of 2 Ability Advancement points?
Steal Destiny II: An astral jaguar can steal the destiny of its prey by latching on to the back of its neck with its jaws. Deals 10-15 base Health damage immediately, and target takes 3 Health damage per second and gains the Steal Destiny status as long as the jaguar remains attached to their neck. Targets of level 6 or below will be Stunned for a duration based on their level. Do you wish to advance your familiar's Steal Destiny Ability at the cost of 2 Ability Advancement points?

Nice! Shadow Pounce is now much safer for her to use because she can attack and then instantly teleport away, and Steal Destiny deals more damage and also actually stuns the target for a little while. The stun only works on low-level enemies, but you feel confident that the allowed level will increase with further investment. You look over your options for the remaining points and again you are drawn to Empathic Bond. Not only does it increase your ability to communicate with Riama, it actually makes her smarter; this is exactly the kind of thing you were looking for from spending these points.

Empathic Bond III: An empathic bond links master and familiar. You and your familiar can transmit complex emotions to each other while you are within 500 meters of each other, and can share sensory input while within 250 meters of each other. Riama gains significantly increased mental capacity and +20% to base Senses, Logic, and Intuition. Do you wish to advance your familiar's Empathic Bond Ability at the cost of 3 Ability Advancement points?

Spending three points here would reduce you to only three, meaning you couldn't advance Empathic Bond further and could only advance either Shadow Pounce or Steal Destiny, and only once, but still you feel that it is entirely worthwhile. Every rank in it so far has been a significant leap forward in your familiar's mental abilities and ability to communicate, and you don't expect that to change. When you invest the three points, however, you are still surprised by the outcome.

Your Soul Familiar's Ability, Empathic Bond, has reached its maximum rank. By advancing it again, it has evolved into a new Ability, but as her Master, you are able to influence how the Ability evolves. Do you wish to evolve Empathic Bond into Projected Empathy (strengthens the familiar's ability to communicate with others) or One Mind (strengthens the familiar's own mentality and its bond with you)?

That is a hard choice. You have to choose between allowing Riama to communicate with others or making her smarter and increasing her ability to communicate with you. Having the ability to instantly relay information through your familiar at a great range would be a huge tactical benefit, but even with the significantly increased mental capacity from Empathic Bond III you aren't sure just how smart she currently is. You decide to test it out, though. You reach out to the astral jaguar again mentally and do your best to ask her for her opinion. She doesn't stir from her resting position, but she does send you back <deep and overwhelming trust in your decisions; eternal, unconditional love; hint of desire to be even more closely connected to you>. You are overwhelmed by the richness and complexity of the emotions she can now transmit to you, and you almost miss the tiny spark of desire from her at the end. However, though faint, her desire is clear, so you choose One Mind.

One Mind IV: An incredibly strong mental bond links master and familiar. You and your familiar can transmit extremely complex emotions or simple sentences to each other while you are within 1000 meters of each other, and can share sensory input while within 500 meters of each other. Riama's mental capacity equals your own and she gains +30% to base Senses, Logic, and Intuition. Both you and Riama gain 25% resistance to mental attacks. You do not have enough Ability Advancement points to advance your familiar's One Mind Ability (have 3, need 4).

By evolving Empathic Bond, Riama has unlocked a new Ability: Wild Heart I.
Wild Heart I: Increases base Might, Speed, Toughness, and Senses by +10% and base Luck by +15%. Increases resistance to beast magic by 25% and all other magic by 5%. Do you wish to advance your familiar's Wild Heart Ability at the cost of 1 Ability Advancement point?

It's just surprise after surprise with these! Not only do you now have the ability to actually communicate telepathically with Riama, evolving Empathic Bond unlocked an entirely new Ability which gives her further Attribute buffs! A soft thump sounds from near the table and you re-focus your attention on the large black cat who is now walking towards you. She walks up to you until you are practically nose-to-nose, and then you hear a soft, feminine voice in your mind. "I love you, Master." Accompanying the voice is a veritable flood of pure <love>.

You wrap your free arm gently around your familiar and bring her up against your chest in a hug and tell her, "I love you too, Riama.". She begins to purr loudly and curls up in the crook of your arm against your chest. You realize that you are actually crying from the intensity of the emotional link between the two of you. It is one thing to know that someone loves you deeply -- you have absolutely no doubt whatsoever in your mind about the presence or depth of Brighid's feelings for you -- but it is another thing completely to be able to feel that love. No drug back on Earth could possibly have ever given anyone a high so pure and soaring as the feeling of your familiar's complete and total love for you. You cuddle with her for a long time before finally mentally disengaging yourself from her and dragging yourself back to the task at hand. You still have three Ability Advancement points and more than forty Attribute points to spend for your familiar. You try to get her opinion on the matter, but she only responds with pulses of trust and contentment.

Eventually, you decide that Steal Destiny makes her more vulnerable while Shadow Pounce allows her to contribute to fights safely, so you advance that, and you spend the one remaining point in the only place you can for now, Wild Heart.

Shadow Pounce III: An astral jaguar can teleport from shadow to shadow and follow up the movement with an instantaneous attack. After attacking, the jaguar can use any remaining teleportation distance to travel to a new shadow within range, make an additional attack, and then teleport to a third shadow, range allowing. Attacks made during Shadow Pounce have a chance to reduce the target's Speed and/or cause them to take damage over time. Maximum range 15 meters. Cooldown: 13 seconds. You do not have enough Ability Advancement points to advance your familiar's Shadow Pounce Ability (have 1, need 3).
Wild Heart II: Increases base Might, Speed, Toughness, and Senses by +20% and base Luck by +30%. Increases resistance to beast magic by 50% and all other magic by 10%. Increases base bite damage by 2 and base claw damage by 1. You do not have enough Ability Advancement points to advance your familiar's Wild Heart Ability (have 0, need 2).

The Attribute buffs from her various abilities are starting to really add up; Riama's Speed is already over 30 without any non-automatic investment in it at all! Still, her Might and Toughness are barely above their starting values, and aside from Empathic Link, everything else seems to be pushing her towards being a burst damage dealer. You decide to spend ten points in each of those two Attributes. Her Willpower is also low, and now that she is just as smart as you are, she should be as capable a mage as you are. You pump another ten points there to buff her Concentration. You still have fourteen points to spend, and you look over your remaining options critically. Endurance isn't something you're worried about for her since she's a cat and will ride everywhere she possibly can; Agility and Speed are already at high levels thanks to her automatic points and Abilities; Charisma isn't all that useful to her aside from boosting fire magic spell power; and you're certainly not going to spend points on Attractiveness or Luck for her, especially considering her already massive Luck. That leaves you with Senses, Logic, and Intuition. She gets a big multiplier to Senses from both Wild Heart and One Mind, so you put the lion's share there and put the rest into Intuition since neither of you have any magic which rely on Logic yet.

You finalize the changes and look at your much-improved Familiar with love and pride. "You're a ferocious little beastie now, love!" You whisper to her. She just keeps on purring in response.

You still need to look into your Paragon Points and consider the Gargoyles' Quest, but you can feel your mind beginning to slow down and skip tracks as your exhaustion continues to weigh on you. With one arm around the your Soulmate and the other around your Soul's Familiar, you allow yourself to drift off to sleep.

Author's note: Hurricane Dorian has passed and I did not even lose power. I was not able to do much in the way of writing ahead, though, so I will still be posting 1/day for now. Sorry!