The room was dark when they fell into it. “Sky, hold still! Don't touch anything!” She fumbled around searching for the solar crystal in the center of the room. The room was instantly bathed in the light.

“Is this where you went last time? I checked the cubby they found you in when they first noticed you gone you know! You weren't there! NINA!”

“Shh there is no need to yell, they can't hear you. Believe me, I tried that last time I got stuck down here. It took me a lot longer to find the light. That mural is where I cut my hand.”

“Why didn't you tell me? I can keep a secret!”

“Na uh! You’ll tell Jade.”

“No I won't!”

“Well, I guess you know now. Can you keep an eye on things while I study this crystal please?” She wanted to get her objective done as soon as possible so they could start heading back out. Last time, she thought that time was suspended while she was in her virtual world. This would be the test to see if that was true or not.

Sky nodded his head and she quickly pressed the crystal again before he started asking more questions.

Welcome Ancient One.

Do you wish to gain another aspect?

Y/N?

Clicking yes in her mind, she was transported to the dig site in her mindscape. Everything looked exactly as it did when she left. Dazzle and Shadow Blade were still exposed but not completely unearthed. She had already decided that she was going to expose every aspect while she was here this time.

The middle row of three squares contained dirt that was halfway between the loose sandy dirt of the front row and the hard-packed dirt of the last row. She was going to take her time to make sure not to damage anything while trying to locate the aspect hidden within.

You have located the aspect for Cloaking.

To obtain this aspect, you must completely unearth it. If the aspect becomes damaged, it is possible to lose it or obtain a weak version of it. Proceed with caution.

The middle row was a little more of a challenge after how easy it was to unearth the aspects in the first row. Taking her time, she uncovered the other two squares.

You have located the aspect for Decoy.

You have located the aspect for Fear.

Looking at the last row, she let out a long sigh. ‘This is going to take me forever! Should I just go with Decoy or Cloaking and ignore the last row for now?’ In the end, she chose to continue her excavation. Not knowing what she could have chosen would keep her up at night fantasizing about what they may be.

You have located the aspect for Hypnotize.

You have located the aspect for Enchant.

You have located the aspect for Contracts.

The mindscape she was in was strange. It felt like hours upon hours had gone by, yet she never got hungry or thirsty. She still got tired, but it felt more like mental strain vs physical strain. Looking at her list of aspect options, she was excited about the Enchant option and probably would have selected it right away if she didn't have to spend the extra effort to completely unearth it.

After mulling over her options while uncovering the aspects, she decided that she needed to go with something she could use right now. Enchanting sounded like a lot of fun, but she had no idea what would be required to do that. With her luck, she would be required to use rare resources that she had zero access to.

She narrowed her choice down to Decoy or Cloaking. Cloaking sounded a lot like invisibility. While it would be fun to blend in with her surroundings, she didn't think that would be quite as useful as Decoy right now. She was hoping that Decoy was a body double that she could create for herself. It would make sneaking out at night quite a bit safer if she left a copy of herself sleeping in her bed.

With that thought, she started very carefully excavating the Decoy aspect. She got a little sloppy near the end and broke a small piece off of the root-like object she was trying to unearth. Cursing to herself, she took even more time to remove the dirt from the rest of the object.

Excavation integrity calculating…

95%

Congratulations, with your attention to detail, a bonus of 4% synchronization has been added to this aspect at the start for a total of 5%

To return for more aspects, you must have a total of 16% synchronization for illusion.

She let out a gasp as her surroundings once again returned to the secret room.

[Magic]

Type

%

Aspect

Illusion

9%

Illusion

68%

Disguise Self

Illusion

5%

Decoy

“Fine I’ll watch, don't take too long. The adults are going to start looking for us soon.” Sky replied to the statement that, for her, she made hours ago. That proved her theory that time did not pass while she was in her mindscape.

“Let's go find them before they find us. I’ll show you how I got out of here last time.” Pressing the right symbol again, the mural silently swung out to reveal the exit.

“We have to go out through the black swirl door. Come on, it is over here.”

The trip out was not any shorter than it was the last time she was stuck down here. This time she didn't stop for any of the dead ends along the way or to investigate any of the doors. With any luck, they should be able to make it to the section the adults were studying within an hour. If they were really lucky, they could sneak by and enter the main room without being caught at all.

While she was in her mindscape, she spent quite a while thinking over how to handle Sky finding out about her secret room. If time didn't freeze while she was in her mindscape, then she decided to tell him about unlocking magic. There was no way she could explain why she blacked out for several hours if time didn't freeze. She had started to feel bad for the five-year-old Sky if he was stuck in that little room for hours with her dead to the world.

With time freezing, it made things both more simple and more difficult. She decided if that was the case, she was not going to spill the beans about her magic. It would be a good test on how well he can keep a secret. If he kept the secret about her mural room, then she would eventually tell him about her magic as well. Keeping all of her secrets to herself was very lonely. While she would not usually tell these kinds of secrets to an almost five-year-old, she had been with Sky almost every day for her entire existence in this world.

“I don't want the bad men to take me from mommy and daddy if they find out I am too smart. Please don't tell the adults about my secret room. The mural room is a special place.” It felt a little weird to dumb down her words for Sky. She wasn't sure if he paid any attention to the Nobles when he was two but felt it unlikely. What was most likely to leave an impact in his young mind was the lady the “bad men” took away when they came.

“I won't tell anyone, not even Jade, but you have to take me next time you go there. Mommy said not to go anywhere alone, remember?”

If it took her as long to get her synchronization up as it did with Disguise Self, she figured it would be at least another six months or more before she would need to return. That should be enough time for her to judge how trustworthy he is. “Okay, I promise to take you if I do that again. We probably shouldn't go back for a long time”

Luck was on vacation tonight it would seem. As they turned one of the last corners, they bumped into her father, quite literally. He was bending over awkwardly and Sky, not paying attention, barreled right into him knocking him over in the process. The only good news they had was that Nina had not raised the alarm about them being missing. Jade had just laid down for a nap before they had left and had not woken up yet.

They were both serving a prison sentence... Ok, they spent ten days doing A LOT of extra writing as punishment for sneaking beyond the door without permission. Thankfully they never thought she had found another way to enter that area. Sky was a trooper. He didn't say a word to the adults about what had happened and let me take the lead on the explanation of why they were misbehaving. Writing “I will not disobey my parents.” several hundred times managed to level her Writing skill so it wasn't all bad.

Level

23

Age

4 1/2

Experience

(26710/27600)

Health

210/210

Mana

700/700

Stat Points

110

Skill Points

4

Strength

16

Constitution

21

Dexterity

18

Intelligence

74

Wisdom

70

[Traits] [Skills] [Magic]

[Basic Skills]

Acting

30

Climbing

17

Drawing

10

Language - Common

MAX

Mathematics

20

Meditation

20

Running

13

Writing

15

[Novice Skills]

Sneak

20

Visualization

26

[Advanced Skills]

Mental Notes

7

Language - Runic

5

[Magic]

Type

%

Aspect

Illusion

9%

Illusion

68%

Disguise Self

Illusion

5%

Decoy