We had figured out a baseline to work on but the next two days showed us it would take a long time to have Alex properly absorb vis. I decided to make a list of the materials I needed for the node stabilizer which would be the base for supplying energy to her. Any node would work but if I had a stabilizer I could place it wherever I wanted without breaking anything.

This was something I had figured out from learning about the Node in a jar. The author had written a warning to never place non-stabilized nodes close to one another since they tended to eat one another. I was not sure about the exact process. Maybe when things calmed down I could do some research? There were so many things I wanted to figure out. I really needed to settle down and get some time for myself.

The main resources I needed to stock up on were glass for moving the node, brass and stone for the stabilizer and food for the goblins. The last one might need more trips than just one, though. I would definitely deposit all my tea at my workshop. No, at Vivi and Safrah’s house. That was much more protected from the weather even with my workshop only having a tiny entrance. It would be a five-day trip this time around to get the pickaxes and all the food I could carry.

On the next day, we decided to figure out where to put the farm. It took a bit but we decided to dig starting right next to the tunnel that led up into the ravine. If we kept the direction, we would go parallel with it.

I shifted to my metal form and started to work on the entrance. After a bit, I had a decent hole bored at a slight upward angle into the rock. I would go down a few metres later before starting on the actual cave.

Alex spoke up as I started to widen the elongated cavity.

“Why don’t you just cut pieces out and move them away?”

I stopped what I was doing. For a short moment I wanted to be stubborn and say that was not possible but I already knew she was right. This method was necessary for the node where stone constantly regrew but for mundane walls?

“I don’t know…”, I sent before realigning my mental image of what I wanted to dig.

I worked the excavation beam to cut a sort of door frame into the surface, making sure to have a well-rounded ceiling. Near the ground, I had to burn through a bit more material due to the awkward angle. Still, I had a thirty-centimetre deep entrance into the tunnel dug in maybe fifteen minutes. Half an hour at most. The big issue was cutting it off from the stone behind. I decided to go with an angled cut from all sides going a little deeper than the original. The highest I could go with this method was the height of my eye but Alex found she could easily lift me to reach that little bit extra. I ended up standing on her shoulders to cut the top half of the tunnel.

Soon, we had two blocks of stone with clean planes on all sides but the front. I looked at the alcove sitting in the wall. It was a little small for goblins to walk comfortably but that was planned. I wanted to do a rough cut first and then go over it and smoothen the walls, floor and ceiling more carefully. The goblins could also just dig through with the same dimensions I had set up and I only had to do the second pass.

All in all, this had taken about an hour and was not even very demanding on the flux production. I barely felt any issues, my storage easily able to hold the raw materials. Another set like this would fill it up but I could just drop the rocks off somewhere between the stalagmites.

I decided to dig a longer, getting the upwards tunnel done other than planing the walls and ceiling. I did the floor at least since it was not too much work.

In the meantime, Alex continued to attempt absorbing vis. She was getting better at keeping it for herself instead of sending it across the bond. It looked like powering a golem with crystals could not work if it was bound to an individual. Maybe something like a seal could block energy flow in one direction. I pushed the thought away. We just needed a simple solution to make her, and myself, independent again.

I started on the downwards tunnel as well the day after but only denoted the angle with the first half a metre. Then I spent a bunch of time cleaning up the walls and widening the tunnel further. This required far less energy which made controlling it easier as well. That gave us some more time to work on absorption. In the evening we decided to take one more day to try and figure it out with both of us switching between resting and focusing on the vis. Sadly, we had no success. Alex was getting much better at controlling it but could not find the inner gate I had described to her.

In the evening, or what counted as such for the goblin village, I decided to take off. I said my goodbyes and gave Alex the Thaumonomicon to catch up and look for other options. The goblins’ day and night cycle was still a little off but it was only just past midnight when I rose into the sky.

I pushed through, this time not even resting once. By afternoon of the following day, I passed my workshop and by the next morning I could make out the sleepy morning lights of Borsdown. It was early enough for no dwarves to be working the quarry but I saw the first groups making their way over.

Something made me feel a little weird and I opened up my menu. There was nothing off with it. I almost thought I had caught a cold or something similar with the way my brain was buzzing. A moment later the feeling disappeared. With certainty, my eyes were drawn back up the lines of numbers. Near the top, I finally saw the change:

Age: 1

Today was my birthday? Neat! I waited for a little longer. The weird feeling in my head was gone but the memory of it remained. What was that about? After circling for nearly half an hour without anything new popping up, I decided that was it and dropped to my friends’ home. My home.

I took the quick way in, shifting past the attic window. Even with how silent I was, I did not have [Sneak] up and soon heard Vivi meow a greeting. She was in the workshop below, carving something, judging from the noise.

I went down and greeted her. She gave me a quick nuzzle before getting back to the block of wood in front of her. It was… simple? The material looked like some leftovers and the carving was only remotely reminiscent of a cat. Or ocelot, I supposed. When I asked for a reason, Vivi answered distractedly.

“Pose study. I’m trying to see how I want the real thing to look.”

“What’s it gonna be made of?”

“Steel.”

“Oh. Yeah. It’s a good idea to plan with something less durable.”

We fell into silence as I watched her work. Around us stood a few prototypes in different poses as well as some unworked logs still waiting to get processed. Some of them were partially rotten, clearly leftovers from cleaning up the surrounding forest.

At some point, Safrah came up and talked us into breakfast. We had a pleasant chat where I caught them up on the newest developments. Nothing much had come up for them but there was one or the other thing about the neighbours and the newly growing town they told me about.

After a bit, I decided to get to work with Vivi also wanting to get back to carving. Safrah showed me the storeroom and when I came back up to tell her I was leaving, I found her reading the Thaumonomicon. It was something about wands specialized in a single primal aspect, constantly leeching a small amount of it from the surroundings. Interesting but not important to me right now.

The next step was getting to Serrington. I could just make it in time to get the tools today. Before I could leave, though, Vivi stopped me at the front door.

“Get some rest!”, she demanded.

“I have to get back soon so Alex can move again.”

“Rest! Now!”

My hesitance must have leaked through the supersensory matrix with how her expression turned into a disappointed snarl.

Safrah called out from behind me.

“She’s right, you know? You look terribly exhausted. Take today off. Fly through the night, if you have to. When you’re back tomorrow afternoon, I’ll have a whole bunch of provisions ready. Deal?”

That sounded incredibly compelling. A moment later, another voice joined the discussion, though only I could hear it.

“Hey, everything alright?”, Alex asked.

“Yes”, I sent back only to her.

“It really doesn’t seem like it.”

“I’m good. I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Haste makes waste, wasn’t that how the saying goes?”

“What…”

“I’m not saying you should be lazy but don’t rush it either, alright?”

I sighed, both mentally and in reality.

“Alright”, I sent to everyone, “I’ll get some rest.”

“Good!”,”Thank you!”,”Great!”, came the responses.

I looked back up at Vivi who had turned to incredulous blinking.

“What?”, I asked.

“Your status! It says your one!”

“One what?”

“One year old!”

“Really?”

Now Safrah was interested.

“Since when?”

“Earlier today?”

“Today is your birthday and you wanted to get right back to work? No! You’re getting some rest and then we’re celebrating! You won’t leave before tomorrow morning, do you understand?”

I nodded meekly.

“I’m sure Alex will too when you tell her.”

That… sounded much too reasonable. I was pushing myself a little too much recently. Maybe some time off in between work and not only after would be good for me.

“What’s a birthday? And why celebrate it?”, Vivi asked.

“Oh, I’ll tell you all about it!”, Safrah said.

My friends pushed me to the attic to get some rest and told me not to leave it before they called me. I knew they were going to do some kind of embarrassing celebration but it made me a little happy they cared.

“You feel better”, Alex remarked.

“You can tell?”

“Yes. It’s pretty easy. You’re not very guarded.”

“Ah… well… Maybe don’t poke around in my feelings?”

“Sorry. I can’t really help it. When I’m just sitting here without anything to do, I need something to occupy my brain and the only thing around is the bond.”

I closed my eyes, intending to get some sleep.

“Just don’t dig too deep… Also, Vivi and Safrah just decided to throw a birthday party.”

“For you?”

“Yea…”

“Today!?”

“Mhm…”

“OH! Happy birthday!”

I could only answer with a mumbled feeling of thanks before sleep took me.