A moment later, Llewellyn teleported us and we ended up seated inside Altan's spacious, spotless car. It was clear he must have had it cleaned for the occasion.
Llewellyn activated a concealment artifact and we all exhaled in relief.
"Concealment used on inanimate objects is often unreliable," Llewellyn said, "but this should last long enough to get you out of here."
"Thank you," Altan said. "If we were in Istanbul, we'd invite you both for a coffee. Or you could come with us to Çanakkale, if you'd like? At this time of the evening, around here, there's probably less—"
I waved my hand.
"Don't even think about it," I said. "You have a marriage proposal… situation to go back to."
"…Right," Altan said, then groaned again.
Llewellyn and I both tried to keep our faces neutral, though I could totally feel his amusement through the bond.
Penguin, who'd started vibrating when Ayşe had entered the wooden horse, suddenly ramped up the vibration. I tapped him gently, trying to signal to him to stay put, but it didn't seem to be working.
Why was he so energetic all of a sudden?
Before I could say that we needed to leave—
Raaa-aaak!
What the—
A bird suddenly materialized on the backrest of Ayşe's seat.
"Is that a cockatoo?!" I asked, startled.
Ayşe let out a panicked noise and said something quickly in Turkish, trying to get the cockatoo back, but the bird just scooted to the side with a sort of rhythmic shuffle, looking at us like he was greatly enjoying himself.
We both stared.
It definitely looked like a snow-white cockatoo with a tall crest. But now that I looked at him properly—
"That's an Air Elemental," Llewellyn said, surprised. "Where did you find it?"
Ayşe hid her face in her hands.
"Please don't report him! I was on a business trip a few weeks ago. Someone had him in a pressurized glass jar, and they were clearly mistreating him, so I… stole him. I didn't know he was an Elemental! I only found out when I was back and he got so startled when Altan came home that he transformed into air and started spiraling around my wrist. It took quite a while to calm him down. He's much less jumpy now."
She reached out to pet him and the bird let out another raaa-aaak sound and leaned into her touch with his eyes closed, pleased.
"I understand," I said. "Of course, we won't say anything. Have you bonded with him?"
Around my wrist, Penguin vibrated harder.
Oh. Did he want to say hi? Maybe he'd sensed him since earlier.
Or… wait. Did he want to steal his feathers?! I tapped the watch gently to tell him to stay put.
We didn't need a ruckus now. Besides, Penguin was an anomaly even for an Elemental. I'd been careless in the beginning, but after our last meeting with Baugh… the fewer people knew about him, the better.
Unfortunately, it seemed like the cockatoo had sensed Penguin too. He was now staring at my wrist, letting out random Raaa-aaaks.
Shit.
"Bonded?" Ayşe asked, confused. "Through the System, you mean?"
I tried to keep Penguin from jumping out. "Yeah," I said.
She deflated a bit. "Before today, I'd only received a notification once or twice; I don't even know if that counts as System awakened? I don't really interact with the System normally."
I mean, maybe I could ask? We had to get out of here quickly though or these two were going to jump each other and Penguin would be discovered!
"System?" I called. "Shouldn't they bond with their Elemental?"
There was a pause, then the System pinged.
[System Notification: Necessary conditions for the bond have not been met.]
As I thought.
"What are these conditions?" I asked.
[System Notification: The Elemental Entity does not require stabilization. He's also still wary of humans.]
Well, I supposed that made sense.
I told them what the System had just said.
Altan nodded, but he deflated a bit too.
"It's good he's stable," he said after a moment. "I was hoping he'd trust us by now. We named him Pamuk."
Having a name somehow made it worse. Penguin was really going to lose it any moment.
Pamuk kept tilting his head, staring at my wrist, and going, Raaa-aaak!, getting more and more animated.
"I hope he'll warm up to us," Ayşe said. "If he wants to leave instead, I suppose we could let him go? But… do we just release him? Would that be safe?"
Honestly? Probably not.
"Just give it some time," I suggested. "If he wants to leave, he'll let you know."
Raaa-aaak!
Shit.
"Elementals aren't pets," Llewellyn added. "They choose their companions. If he's stayed, he's likely comfortable with you."
Ayşe looked like she might cry. She reached up to stroke his crest again.
Raaa-aaak!
"If we don't get out of here in the next three minutes," I told Llewellyn through the bond, "Penguin is going to attack him."
Llewellyn turned to look at me, slightly startled.
After a second, Ayşe added, "Please, keep him secret."
"We're really not going to say anything," Llewellyn said. "You're clearly taking care of him and it's none of our business."
"Thank you," Altan said. "We're very attached to him."
RAAA-AAAK!
Fuck. Penguin was really a vibration away from—
"We'll be leaving now," Llewellyn added. "We really need to get back to Innishae. Make sure to leave this area within the next ten minutes so that the artifact will still be in full effect."
Thank goodness.
"Got it," Altan said.
"Speak soon," I told him, patting his shoulder, "and good luck with your families."
We teleported away.
***
As soon as we landed in Llewellyn's kitchen, Penguin transformed back, throwing a huge tantrum.
"I know you wanted to meet him," I said, patting his head. "I'm sorry; I was being overly cautious. But you can't go around stealing other birds' feathers—that's not right!"
Penguin stopped, looking guilty for a few seconds, then started chirping in protest again, going back to his tantrum. He warmed up when I pulled him into a cuddle and pressed his little face over my shoulder, though he was still grumbling a bit.
A few moments later, he must have decided we were fine now. He rubbed his face against my neck affectionately and jumped out of my arms, running off to say hi to Lumos as soon as he popped back into the room.
The magnitude of the day hit me at once.
I looked around. I loved this place, but the fact that now I didn't have my flat to go back to made my head spin all of a sudden.
Oh, wait. I had to tell Gran we were fine!
***
"Let's take a shower," Llewellyn said as soon as I was done with my call. "Then takeaway and bed. How does that sound?"
It was after 11 PM already.
"Amazing," I said with a sigh. "I could kiss you right now."
Llewellyn seemed amused. He moved closer, bracketing me against the kitchen counter, and eyed me, expectant. "Well?"
I snorted and pulled him into a kiss.
"Shower," I said, taking my hoodie off on my way to the bathroom. "Come on."