January 20, 2019, 8:32 am

Rufka and I are roused from bed at what can only be called an unreasonable time. Well, it would have been fine if we hadn't stayed up until four am. Anyway, I'm far grumpier at being roused for my watch than I was expecting.

As I'm walking towards the central chamber, grumbling under my breath, I stop. Smoulder's still sleeping in my room. When I turn back, I notice Josh and Beth standing close together. Then Beth gives him a quick peck on the lips before pulling him into what, at some point, I mentally labelled as Beth's bedroom.

I stare at the entrance. It takes several seconds for my recently awoken brain to kick in and understand what's happening.

Oh. Oh!

Good for them.

Instead of going back to retrieve Smoulder, I close the stone door behind me, giving them some privacy.

Even though I'm feeling giddy at Beth and Josh apparently being together, I'm still kind of grumbly when I greet Rufka for our late morning/middle of my sleeping period watch. I'm gid-rumbly?

Nope, doesn't work.

However, Rufka makes us a new tea. As I take my first sip, my grumbling transitions to contentment.

"Substance analyzed: Rufka's Nightwatch tea blend.

Description: Grants improved night vision, alertness and reduces effects of fatigue for one hour. Reduced effectiveness on copper rank or above. Toxic to mortals."

"The description should include that it tastes like oranges," I tell Rufka as we sit in a pair of thrones I've formed out of the benches. I say thrones instead of chairs because these are grand and majestic and difficult to move in and out of. Rather comfy for a bunch of packed dirt though.

"Nah. Where's your sense of discovery," Rufka counters, taking another sip of her tea.

"I reserve my sense of discovery for magic, exploration and food. And no, tea isn't food," I declare as I set my tea on the large flat space that joins our thrones together.

I consider mentioning Beth and Josh, but decide that if they wanted us to know they'd tell us. Instead, I tell Rufka the beginning of a story from earth about a young wizard who went to an amazing school to learn about wizardry.

It's more back and forth than I was expecting, I use magic to illustrate my story. Rufka doesn't have any sense of wonder when I talk about magic, but when I mention cars and trains it takes over an hour before we get back to the story.

At least the digression is good for practicing my elemental skills. Now that the caps are raised, creating small replicas of cars and trains is giving me increases again. I decide that ice will be my control element. If I don't level ice, I can ensure I'll get both Temporal and Spatial to a hundred without accidentally completing the quest.

Temporal is already at ninety. And given the frequency with which I use pause, I'm not worried about getting it to a hundred.

Spatial is going to require active practice though. Which is a good thing, because I'm continually forgetting about it in combat.

So, since the story is derailed anyway and most of my elemental skills are at ninety, I start practicing. Rufka happily volunteers to help me train, firing arrow after arrow at me.

As we're practicing, I pause time. I've been meaning to test this since I figured out how to teleport, but never seem to have the time or safety to experiment. Now we're in an underground bunker, with hours of nothing to do except ensure no one gets slaughtered in their sleep. Perfect opportunity to practice.

I reach out, forming the tether and everything is going as expected until I reappear. At this point I discover not only is time unpaused, I'm unable to re-enter pause. Before I have time to reflect on this, an arrow hits my shoulder, spinning me about. I thump off the nearby wall, but I'm not hurt.

"Lexi? You okay?" Rufka calls with a higher-pitched voice than usual when I don't stand up right away.

"Yeah. Forgot to mention I was trying something new," I inform Rufka as she comes over. She sighs, slumping down beside me while draping her upper arm over my shoulder. There's no new condition listed, so I'm waiting to discover when I'll have the ability to pause time again.

"You do that a lot. Worries me," Rufka says, squeezing me closer for a second. My ability still hasn't recovered. Even though we're sitting I'm still idly playing with twilight, running it through my fingers.

"Sorry. It's just so amazing, you know?" I reply a few seconds later, leaning my head on her shoulder.

"Yo...it really is," Rufka responds. Even as she's speaking my pause finishes recharging, activating as I test it. It looks like it takes thirty-six seconds after teleporting to recharge. On the plus side, now I know it takes me out of pause. Which means there should be another way to end my pause without teleporting.

That'd be nice.

Since I'm in pause mode again, I attempt to do exactly that. Reaching for my facet, I focus as I teleport again, trying to determine exactly what causes my pause to end. As I'm porting, I realize that my isolated bubble of time shrinks with me but doesn't reappear after I'm through my teleport.

"Ukila above, Lexi!" Rufka swears from across the room, causing me to turn to look at her in confusion. Then I realize I didn't warn her. Again.

"Sorry," I mumble as I feel my cheeks burning.

"By Vaus' tits, you're gonna be. You better get moving, Lexi," Rufka says as she draws her bow. Looks like practice is back on.

As she takes aim at me once more, a grin spreads across her face. The arrows are coming quicker now, but I'm having no trouble dodging. I don't have a mirror but I'm sure my grin is a rival for hers, the arrows flying towards me failing to find purchase.

As if I'd make it that easy for her.

Teleporting away, I test haste with teleport next. Same results occur. I have to wait before I can use it after I port. Luckily, teleport isn't on cooldown, so I keep porting away as Rufka's arrows send chunks of earth flying.

Reactivating haste once the cooldown is over, (Which was thirty-six seconds, again), I dodge her arrow by jumping away. This time I'm trying something slightly different. As another arrow thunks into the spot I recently vacated, I teleport after deactivating haste. This time when I activate it again, there's no cooldown.

Sweet, all I need to do is time haste with teleport and I can use them both together. I wonder what's causing the cooldown to kick in? Even as I'm thinking, I'm still dodging but my next teleport fails to activate as quickly as I'd like, causing me to take another arrow. This one strikes me in my butt, spinning me around.

Even as I stumble to remain standing, I discover I was so distracted I didn't realize my facet was nearly empty. If not for its rapid regen, I'd be at zero. Which I'm pretty sure is what slowed my teleport. I guess we have been going non-stop for over an hour, not counting our short break.

But I had over fifty facet left, even after my first experiments.

Is teleporting combined with haste more expensive?

"Spent already?" Rufka teases as she comes over, draping her arm over my shoulder while settling her other on my hip.

"Yeah. I think using teleport while hasted costs me more facet," I postulate as I catch a sniff of…? Is that lavender?

Turning my head towards Rufka, I sniff her before I consciously realize what I'm doing. Even as I confirm that, yes, the pleasant lavenderesque smell is coming from Rufka, my cheeks start burning. I start to turn away, but I don't actually try to escape her hold on me as she chuckles.

"You know, that's a rather bold move, Lexi," Rufka teases with a small smile.

"Sorry. You smell, uhm, good," I chuckle nervously. I'm suddenly acutely aware of how closely Rufka's holding me. I blame Josh and Beth, but I can't help thinking about the other night when I was in the bath and the first thing she mentioned was toys.

Is Rufka…

I mean they don't have males. And their thiani are all females. Am I that dense? Is Rufka into me?

Thinking back, I realize she's only prone to throwing her arms around me. No one else gets that preferential treatment.

"Thanks, Lexi. You smell good too," Rufka replies after a quiet moment.

I think there's a slight tremor to her voice. I mean, I might be wrong. Hate to misinterpret her just being friendly. I don't know how I feel about it either way, but I know I'm fond of her. So, I wrap my arm around her then lean my head on her shoulder.

"I'd ask if you want to sit, but we kind of wrecked the furniture," Rufka observes.

Looking around, I realize she's right. Though technically she's the one that did most of the wrecking, her arrows chipping away at our thrones, the table and the benches. I'm glad I took the time to craft doors for the bedrooms. I'd hate to imagine how loud we've been. I guess that goes both ways. I haven't heard anything from Beth and Josh either, though it's possible they just went to sleep.

Returning my attention to the lack of appropriate seating, it only takes a moment to craft a new, wider two-seat throne, which I find myself guiding Rufka towards one is complete.

"I have a confession," Rufka says as we're sitting on the bench. Her words cause my stomach to get all fluttery.

Before she makes her confession, I need to get myself sorted. So, I cheat, pausing time before she can continue.

How do I feel about her? I like her. A lot. But she's a girl. I've never felt anything for girls before. Then again, I've only ever been attracted to a couple of guys. And that was only after I got to know them.

Sab suggested I might be pansexual once, but I countered with the fact I'd never been attracted to a girl before. So much for that idea.

I mean sure, I've admired a few girls who were pretty but never had uh-uh thoughts about them.

And now that I think that, I'm having those kinds of thoughts about Rufka. She is rather pretty. And she did mention having toys and…

Not right now Alexis. Concentrate. You're trying to get sorted.

What else? Okay, she's not human. I should probably keep that in mind. It's technically an issue. But for some reason, it doesn't feel like a relevant factor.

It's not remotely as important as the fact that we're from different worlds. And I'm trying to go home. Will she be able to come with me? Would she want me to stay here? Would we have to break up?

And is she even interested? I don't know that she is. Maybe I'm only hoping she is?

Wow. All this time to think isn't helping as much as I'd been expecting.

Except for one thing. If Rufka is into me. Well, I'm sure I'm into her right back. I definitely don't want her to stop holding me.

There's still another minute of pause-time left but I'd prefer to resume talking to Rufka right now. Since I've just witnessed one way to end my pause early, I attempt to replicate the result without porting away.

Drawing the shield in doesn't work as I cautiously tug at it. It's only when I exert strong mental pressure that it rapidly collapses, returning me to the regular flow of time.

After another couple seconds, Rufka hasn't continued, so I nudge her side, "what confession?"

"Hmm. When I joined you, I was only sticking around cause I was hoping to use you to free my mum," Rufka admits, which completely derails my thoughts. Not the confession I was expecting.

Hoping for? I don't know.

"The fact that you were actively going against the Aetherium seemed like something I could work with. I didn't expect to have so much fun with everyone. Even Tipan's not so bad. Never thought I'd meet a skyborne who didn't look down her nose at me."

I nod, not sure what the big deal is. I already told her we'd go after her mum.

"What I'm trying to say is. Mum told me that I should be true to my heart." I pull away from her, enough to look into her eyes, but she's staring at the door leading to where Tipan and Roberts are sleeping.

"Oh?" I ask, suddenly worrying that maybe she sees me as a friend and it's Tipan she has feelings for.

That's fine. I'm cool. We're still cuddling, right?

Right.

"Yeah. And my heart is telling me I need to get mum out as soon as possible. I shouldn't be relying on the mysterious power of outlanders to do it for me."

Wait. What?

"And I won't drag you into it. There's no way I'd put you at risk like that. Not now."

"What do you mean, won't put me at risk?" I demand. There's a confusing mix of conflicting emotions behind my question. Anger that she thinks she gets to make my decisions for me. Delight that she cares. Fear that she'll go off and get herself hurt or killed. Probably a couple more in there too.

"I don't want you to get killed or worse. Like Beth and Roberts keep saying, you need to be stronger before you can take on the Aetherium."

"Well, what if I don't want you getting killed either?" I counter, wrapping my other arm around her, pulling her into an awkwardly angled hug. The throne wasn't designed for sitting hugs. Even as I maintain my hug, I change that.

"I'll be fine. I've snuck into the Aetherium before. And I'm not the one being hunted. Now that I have all these essence from our dungeon run, I can free my mum without putting all of you in danger. It'll be expensive, but with this sort of wealth Theria and I can buy her freedom," Rufka reassures me while returning my hug with all four arms.

We sit quietly as Rufka brushes one hand through my hair.

"I don't want you to leave," I admit after a minute of her continuing to stroke my hair.

"I won't. Not yet. I'll make sure you're all safely outside of the Aetherium first. Besides, I have every intention of coming back. I'm not sure if I've mentioned, but mum's an Archmage," Rufka teases, "Once she's free, she can teleport us to any Nexus on the continent. You'll see us in a matter of hours. As long as you're not busy becoming even more awesome inside a dungeon, that is."

"Good. That's good," I say, releasing her from my two-armed hug. This time when I look at her, she's staring right back at me, her upper eyes closed.

"What's your full name?" Rufka asks as I stare into her golden eyes.

It takes me several long seconds before I'm able to answer her question. "Uhm. I guess it would be Alexis Wyonna Everette?" I reply, confused as to why she'd want to know my full name.

I listen as she tries to get it right, repeating it several times. I find it incredibly endearing.

At her request, I correct her until she's saying my name mostly properly. There's still a couple extra r sounds. When I mention it, she insists she wants to pronounce it perfectly. It takes a couple of minutes for her to stop adding the r's, but eventually, she's saying 'Alexis Wyonna Everette' like a pro.

As soon as she confirms she's saying it perfectly, she states "I, Rufka of clan Plethesa, would like Alexis Wyonna Everette, to be my friend."

"User Rufka of clan Plethesa has issued Citizen Alexis Wyonna Everette a Friend Request. WARNING! Friends will be able to use Nexus hubs to determine each other's approximate direction and distance. Do not add a friend you do not trust. Would you like to be her friend?"

"The Friend Request ability has been unlocked in the general ability shop."

"Yes. Of course, I'll be your friend," I grin at her while mentally confirming with the system at the same time. It's so much more formal than social media. And it warns you about potential stalker abuse.

"Friend added. Purchase the Contacts or Friend Request ability to remove friends."

Being friends is good. Much better than not friends.

"Good. When I leave, I'll send mail whenever I have access to a Nexus hub if you do the same," Rufka offers as I snuggle in next to her.

"Definitely," I confirm. Not sure where I expected this to go, but I'm okay with just snuggles. For the moment.

However, I'm still worried about the idea of Rufka going into the Aetherium alone.

But I have an idea. All I need is to improve my twilight magic to create illusions like Beth. Then, once I look like some random K'tharn, I'll be able to go in beside her. It could all go wrong, of course.

But being there for each other is what friends are for, right?