Fresh stands outside of the door to their house, staring up towards the distant bubble covering the city. She doesn’t move and isn’t out here with any particular purpose that she can recall having. Rather, she’s just standing here, staring vacantly at the magical shield.

Snow falls down onto her cheek, stemming from the casters standing atop the lower branches of the world-tree. They seem to be there all day, every day. Apparently, they had been hired by the city to keep the mood and spirits of the population up. Winter is a very popular time here amongst the people.

She wonders what the outside of the bubble looks like? Did something happen to one of the other cities? To all of them, perhaps? Is everyone who she knows and has met okay?

She wants to know.

She wants to go out there and check on each and every one of them. She thinks that she still has her broom in her inventory? But even if she flew up towards the peak of the shield, there’s no way out. It’s all domed off. It’s like they’re some ornamental trinket trapped inside of a glass bauble for the gods to look at during idle ganders.

A flake of snow lands on the tip of her nose, not melting as it sticks to her clammy skin. She’s always so cold, so she always has to steal warmth from her friends. Well, it’s not such a bad life, really. She hopes that they don’t mind. But so far, it doesn’t really seem like they do.

…A bauble?

Fresh repeats the word in her mind, having taken a spontaneous liking to it.

“Bauble, bauble.”

She blinks, lowering her gaze and opening the front door. Looking inside, she peeks over towards Jubilee, who is making tags and price shields for the shelves. Feeling her gaze, Jubilee looks up from their work.

“…What?” they ask, raising an eyebrow.

“Bauble,” explains Fresh, stepping inside and heading down to the basement.

“What the fuck are you talking about this time?”

“Baubles, Jubilee~!” explains Fresh, looking over her shoulder as she heads down the spiral staircase.

They shrug. “What the fuck is a bauble?”

Fresh, unable to see them anymore as she heads down to the basement, cups a hand by her mouth and half-shouts. “It’s like a bubble, Jubilee. But baubely.”

She just hears a sigh in return.

“Bauble,” mutters Fresh to herself. It’s a good word.

Fresh swings the staff around through the air, cutting through the damp ambiance of the basement with the wooden pole. It’s just a simple staff. It isn’t made out of rare-wood. Rather, it’s just made out of common wood, otherwise known by the everyman as ‘wood’.

But she added a hollow moon-glass bauble to the end of it. That’s the entire gimmick. It’s so simply stupid that it’s absurd. But it works.

[Bebaubled Staff]{Holy}(Masterwork) A simple, sturdy, straight wooden staff with a hollow glass bauble at the end. The enchanted, strong glass absorbs the attributes of whatever is placed inside of itself.

Bauble: [EMPTY]

-) All spells add +15% {BAUBLE ATTRIBUTE} to cast SPELL-DMG / SPELL-HEAL

+2 INT

+2 WIS

Quality Effect: Greatly enhances the magical attributes of the contents of the bauble Holy: {BAUBLE ATTRIBUTE} also applies to cast SPELL-HEAL Weight: 0.74kg Value: ???

“Bauble,” she smiles to herself, looking around for something to put inside of it. Laying the staff on the table, she unscrews the glass bauble and then picks up a spriggan’s seed from a small bag, dropping it inside and screwing it back in.

The staff shakes in her hand, the magic of the spriggan’s seed condensing and fluctuating as it cracks apart. The glass of the staff is filled in an instant with what looks like a fern that presses itself against the insides of it. It almost looks like a small aquarium now, minus the water.

[Bebaubled Staff]{Holy}(Masterwork) A simple, sturdy, straight wooden staff with a hollow glass bauble at the end. The enchanted, strong glass absorbs the attributes of whatever is placed inside of itself.

Bauble: [Spriggan’s Seed]

-) All spells add +15% {NATURE} to cast SPELL-DMG / SPELL-HEAL

-) Summons a Spriggan healer to follow you

+2 INT

+2 WIS

Quality Effect: Greatly enhances the magical attributes of the contents of the bauble Holy: {BAUBLE ATTRIBUTE} also applies to cast SPELL-HEAL Weight: 0.74kg Value: ???

“Pakew!” shouts the latest spriggan, appearing suddenly behind her. Fresh turns around, waving to it. It lifts its arms, reaching up. She hands it the staff and watches curiously as it bobs on its feet, trying to hold the far too large staff in its stubby, handless arms. Having difficulty, it opts to hold the staff beneath one of its arms, wrapping its long, green sprout around the top of the staff to keep it steady.

(Spriggan{1}) used [FOREST CURE] on (Fresh) HP MAX

A green glow envelops her and then fades. The nature-based healing spell feels far less warm than Basil’s white-magic, but the feeling that it brings isn’t bad either. It’s like the cool of a forest creek.

“Thanks, little guy,” says Fresh, appreciating the effort, even if she was already at full health.

“Pakew!”

“Will you stop with the fucking spriggans?!” yells Jubilee from upstairs.

Fresh frowns, looking up towards the staircase. “I can’t help what nature does, Jubilee.”

She gets a second sigh in return. But she can hear Basil laughing from all the way upstairs.

Looking back at the bauble, she wonders. What happens if she puts… well, actually, anything else inside of it? What about some ash from the fireplace? A drop of water from the fountain? A drop of water from her inventory window?

Fresh blinks, no, that one is a bad idea. Best not to do that.

But what about a chicken’s feather? A piece of fabric? Harpy dust?

It’s very exciting. But she only has one staff right now and the spriggan is holding onto it. She doesn’t want to steal it from the poor creature whose life literally depends on it, so, instead, she just sets to work making more.

“Hey, Jubilee?” asks Fresh. They’re upstairs in the living area. Jubilee had marked out the floor with chalk a while ago and they’re only now getting around to setting it up. The current plan is to have a small pantry by the open kitchen. In the center between the pantry and the kitchen is going to be a table for the four of them. “Is the thieves’ guild here too?” she asks. “In the center?”

“I’d be surprised if they weren’t,” replies Jubilee, shaking their head.

The bedroom, they’ve opted to build as a separate room that’s in the back-right, diagonally opposite of the kitchen. But, to Fresh’s delight, this is going to be one large, shared room. They’ve decided to go for a shared, but separate space to sleep in, because it just feels better. Basil had said that she didn’t like sleeping here in the open area because the ceiling is so high.

“It’s hard to explain,” says the priestess. “But it’s just creepy,” she explains. “Having that big empty thing above you at night.” She plays with her bracelet, staring up towards the rafters and the patched roof. “Is that weird?”

“Yes,” says Jubilee.

“No, I get it, Basil,” remarks Fresh. She doesn’t mind it herself, but she feels like she can understand why it would be spooky. There is a substantial height gap between this floor and the ceiling. Honestly, one could fit an entire second floor up there. Fresh ponders the idea.

A telescope?

She lifts her gaze towards the ‘fixed’ hole in the ceiling. Times are certainly challenging these days. But what if they built a raised platform here. Just another spiral staircase that leads up to the hole in the ceiling where they’d have a big telescope? She doesn’t know how useful it would be, given the shield. But maybe…Honestly, so far, the technique she had learned from the magistrate of the western city hasn’t been too helpful for her yet. But she feels like she shouldn’t give up on it just yet.

Fresh points up at the ceiling. “Can I build a big telescope?” she asks.

“Are you going to do something creepy with it?” asks Jubilee. “Like stalking the neighbors?”

“No!” argues Fresh. “I just want to look at the sky and stuff.” She hadn’t ever considered it. But with a big telescope, she could watch her friends from a high perch, even if they aren’t at home. Fresh blinks. Is she being creepy?

Nah. It’s fine.

“Fine with me, but it’s low on the budget list right now,” says Jubilee, dropping a heap of wood. The house-spriggan runs over, dragging a single plank onto the heap. “Thanks,” says Jubilee, rolling their eyes.

The other spriggan with the staff heals the first spriggan, both of them chanting as it runs away to pick up another plank of wood from the basement.