When Danika entered her little stone she found that the basic shape and size of her new space was identical to Aishin's stone, but that was where any similarity ended. There was no light stone embedded in the ceiling, and Danika zipped up and touched her claws against the nearly invisible barrier that seemed to separate her from the sky, although her hands told her that they were touching a solid surface. Below her was a round island of bare soil that appeared to be floating in the middle of a reflecting pool cradled by greenery and a small pavilion on one side. The other side looked out over an invisible drop to a stunning view of distant mountains wrapped in mist.

There was still a center stone, and beside it lay a small book. Danika dropped to the ground beside it, and picked up the little book. It began with the entrance word, and then told her that "exit" was still the exit word, and Danika chuckled. Then Logical Heart informed her that the diamond that held the active illusion link was set at the center of the reflecting pool in his own residence, since that had seemed safest.

Danika looked around again and wondered what on earth the best enchanter in the game who could afford a residence with a view like this had ever been doing trying to sell his stones on a mat in the human capital's market. The illusion was one way, Logical Heart assured her, and he'd built a layer of stones beneath the soil that would drain off excess water and enchanted the bottom most stone in the center to actually slowly absorb water and send it back to his reflecting pool.

Danika read through the rest, which included a lot of information about the exact composition and source of the soil, and rambling speculation about how to design even bigger spaces in the future. When she finished, she realized with amusement that Logical Heart had never included anything to provide water to the space and that the game had covered the lack with the God's gift.

She pulled out her new aqua stone and stored the book in its place, then activated it and zipped around the little room until the soil was damp. Then she pulled out each of the seeds she'd stored. She put the furry apple seed near the center where the soil was deepest, and cast her growth spell. The little tree grew so quickly that Danika worried it would be too big, but it stopped growing taller as soon as the tip of the tallest branch reached the invisible ceiling. Danika suspected that real trees would not be so obliging.

She planted the moonflowers near the wall that showed the pavilion. Their leafy vines coiled out into the room and filled up a surprising amount of space. The poisonous black datura tangled in fox fur she considered carefully, and then placed it into her pouch again. She wanted to ask Shrubbery for advice before planting a poisonous plant in a space where she hoped to grow edible things.

She took the time to sort the remaining contents of her inventory, she had the poisonous seed, her spidersilk string, her new aqua stone, old salt sacks, little book, and the embroidered pouch that could hold any amount of one thing. She looked around and decided that her next goal was to obtain the plants she needed fresh clippings from for the familiar spell.

Before exiting, she browsed the forums and revisited the spreadsheet built and maintained by Olea Flos. She chose a plant and a destination and laid her little clawed hand against her center stone and said a bit smugly, "Exit."

Danika flew cautiously south and west. Her destination seemed fairly easy to find, since people had posted dozens of maps of the northern plains recently with the Christmas goblin fortress' location clearly marked in relation to known centaur and goblin towns and villages, and she should be able to navigate by those landmarks.

She wanted to visit a human town that was marked on the spreadsheet as a good place to collect wild Amaranth. It lay on the banks of the big river that snaked south from the northwestern coast, along the foot of the dwarven mountain range, and almost back to the human capital at the center of the map. It wasn't far from both goblin and centaur settlements and with the dwarves and gnomes in the mountains it sounded like an area that might be prone to conflicts.

After she'd flown awhile she wondered if it wouldn't have been better to have found a centaur town with a portal and returned to the human capital to travel outward from there. The scenery was amazing, with rolling plains filled with a surprising variety of grasses, flowers, shrubs, and even small trees bordering the occasional wandering stream. There were herds of grazing animals, and wild birds that trilled and chirped a variety of songs. But traveling alone was surprisingly nerve wracking, and she found herself scanning constantly for potential enemies. It made her aware that none of her skills except evasion were useful for avoiding dangers.

She leveled up both of her identification skills with her wary examination of everything she passed, before she logged off to sleep, so she could at least consider it time well spent. She quit a bit earlier than usual because she was still tired from the long night before.

--

The next morning Danika woke at her usual time, and felt better rested than she had in days.

She resumed her normal morning routine, which seemed to include a word of greeting from Aishin these days, and set her phone up beside her main screen when she started her shift. She had ZipZing stop where she was in the plains and enter her garden. Her cute little fairy dragon practiced skills like her light cantrip while she worked. Within the safe environment of her garden she could ignore "Living Jade Empire" when she was too busy.

When Danika logged in that night through the VR-medi pod, she watered her new garden with her aqua stone and then exited and resumed her journey. Eventually she arrived safely at Kalunay, which turned out to be a comfortable little town nestled in the curve of the river as though it had a moat on three sides.

Danika spotted the traveling merchant in the town square and zipped toward him. Another player was already standing in front of him, so she halted politely a couple of meters away.

The young human woman said cheerfully, "I need to buy a map of this area."

The traveling merchant said simply, "I can't sell you anything."

"What? Why not?" the woman asked worriedly.

"You're my wife, so everything I have is yours," he explained to her gently with his familiar cheerful grin.

Danika stared at the pair in open mouthed surprise.