It was a beautiful day outside, the sun had risen past mid-morning, the air moved with a gentle breeze, and plentiful, innocuous clouds drifted overhead lazily. And as Niko’s taloned feet met soft, loamy earth, he had to admit that it was a perfect day to have a nice trip out to the Evergreen. Especially considering both he and the others needed to break in their new gear a bit, which Niko was quite happy with.

“I do have to hand it to her,” Dachna said, “In spite of how weird she is, she does good work.”

“Sorry, again,” Skye cringed, “She’s not normally that intense.”

“She seems a little obsessive about her craft,” Ronald spoke, while stretching his arms.

Mithel chuckled, “A little?”

Ronald smiled but said nothing. Skye answered, “Well, her family’s been in the business of making things for generations. If you hear them tell it, they’ve got the calling in their blood.”

“I wouldn’t be that surprised, considering all the magic stuff that exists.” Niko chirped out, still relishing the feeling of earth underfoot, rather than brick.

“That’s fair,” Mithel nodded, “Magic’s pretty tricky. I’ve learned a bit of it, since Alchemy eventually needs stuff that’s kind of parallel to enchanting done, but I’m still practicing with the basics.”

“Are people like Priscilla really rare, then?” Niko cocked his head to the side, “She is a mage, right?”

“Sorceress,” Skye corrected, “But, no, not especially. It’s uncommon for someone to take to magic and come here, but that’s only because Greenleaf doesn’t specialize in any kind of magical tools.”

“It’s honestly one of the few things that we don’t have on this side of the Kingdom.” Ronald added.

“Right, right. So, one other question,” Niko nodded and then asked “Why specifically sorceress? Is that not the same as a mage?”

Skye made an unequivocal gesture with her hand, “Eh, kind of? It’s the same as if you’d refer to construction workers, farm hands, and miners as laborers. Not technically inaccurate, but at the same time ambiguous.”

“And some people might feel that you’re devaluing their selected career by generalizing,” Mithel gestured to herself, “You can technically call me a mage, but that doesn’t encompass the many years of learning I’ve done to get here. Whereas a sorceress basically interacts with essence to create what is known colloquially as spellcraft, an alchemist needs to have classical learning, experimentation, and often a lot of resources. So, some people, but not me, might take exception to those generalizations.”

The group looked at her for several seconds before Dachna asked, “You’re sure you’re not taking exception to that?”

Mithel gave him a saccharine smile that he took as his cue to immediately change the subject by saying, “So! Right, we’re testing some new strategies, yeah?”

Niko cawed a slight laugh, but decided to contribute to the change in topic, “Yeah. I want to see what you guys have made! It was kinda crazy watching you all go through… whatever it was you did.”

Skye nodded thoughtfully, “I guess that might look weird for someone who's never seen it before. Usually, tiering up is done alone, or at most with a single mentor on hand.”

“Dad made it a point to show me when he tiered up several years ago,” Ronald spoke with an uncharacteristic sense of awe to him, “I’ve always known that the higher tiers were powerful, but it’s wild to actually see how much essence they have at their disposal.”

“How’d he do that in Greenleaf?” Mithel emphasized the city's name before gesturing at the air, no doubt at the thinness of the essence even as they moved further on the dirt road to the Evergreen.

“Oh, it wasn’t here,” Ronald shook his head, “We visited family up at the Fortress City and he decided to make the jump up to tier four.”

“How does he even live here?” Dachna shook his head at that, “Does he drink essence water or something?” He said with a joking tone, though Niko found himself wondering if that was actually a thing. It wouldn’t be too surprising if it was, honestly.

“Of course not,” Ronald shook his head, “He’s the one who taught me essence control. I think Camille might be the only person I’ve seen that’s got him beat. Though, apparently he first started learning it after seeing her in action.”

“Why does that help him live here?” Niko asked, which Skye helpfully translated for him.

“He’s… I guess holding his essence in his body is a good way to put it. It’s like he keeps it from leaking out of his skin, which usually makes people underestimate him all the time too, thinking he’s only tier one or something.” At that, Ronald laughed, “Not a great idea.”

“I’d imagine not,” Skye hummed, “Anyways, who wants to go first?”

The Wyldwalkers looked back and forth before Dachna said, “Well, I guess that’s my cue then.”

In the next moment, Niko felt a strangeness fall over the lean man. A twinge in his mind itched, and Niko looked over into the forest, ‘Huh… it’s quite nice out.’

Niko turned and regarded the trees, the dirt road beneath his feet. It really was a great day out, maybe he’d stop by the old river and his nest to see how things were while he was out and about. Then they could do some tests and find out what the new patterns the–

A cold chill rippled across his skin as his feathers lifted in body wide goosebumps.

“Niko, you okay?” Skye felt the strangeness of Niko’s mental condition as they walked, “You feel something?”

Niko snapped around, cawing loudly as he recognized the invasive push of essence in his mind. “Mind essence!” He blasted essence outwards with his words, “We’re nowhere near the Daurghast, though!? How, why?”

Niko spun around before suddenly his mind cleared, along with Dachna shouting, “Whoa, easy, breathe, buddy!”

Slowly, Niko double checked his mind before taking a few deep breaths and setting his startled gaze on Dachna, “Was that you!?” Niko asked, feeling genuine shock run through him at the possibility.

Skye translated with confusion, “What just happened? I…” She trailed off, seemingly confused while she spoke, “I remember we were talking about Ronald’s Dad and then… We were just walking?”

“Holy shit.” Mithel uttered while looking at Dachna with a look of shock and awe on her face, “Do you have a perception filter?”

Dachna went from slightly sheepish to perturbed, “Wait, you know what this is? That’s so not fair! It’s supposed to be a surprise.”

Skye and Ronald looked none the wiser, but Niko knew. He also once more confirmed that Mithel was almost definitely a geek like him at least if she knew what a perception filter was. There were plenty of sci-fi and fantasy sources in his old life that could explain what just happened. The ability to make a mind forget, or be interested in something other than what was there.

That was a very interesting ability for a rogue to have…

“I don’t get it.” Ronald and Skye said at the same time.

“Basically,” Dachna took the initiative to explain, proudly, before Mithel could steal his thunder, “You forget I’m here, you forget why you should be looking for me, and you don’t really notice what I’m doing.”

Skye looked absolutely gobsmacked, “That… how does that even… That’s possible?”

“There’s got to be a serious drawback, right?” Ronald’s footsteps slowed briefly as he looked at him thoughtfully.

Dachna nodded, “Well, that’s partly what I was testing. It was fine for all of like five seconds, not too intensive, but… Niko jacked up the cost all of a sudden. I think if someone realizes what’s happening, it’ll cost me a lot to keep it maintained.”

“I’ve felt this kind of thing before, too. I was near the border to the Daurghast and…” Niko shivered, “I felt something trying to draw me in deeper. I think it was scent related, but still, I got all kinds of heebie-jeebies from it.”

Skye shivered at that account, too, “Alright, we need to practice getting used to that.”

“Definitely. Imagine if a predator could do that?” Mithel shivered, “It’s a good thing you’ve got it, though. Just don’t get caught peeping on people,” She jokingly ribbed Dachna.

He chuckled, “Yeah, that’s not the only thing though. I have one other trick.” Dachna pulled out an exceedingly polished shiny coin. “Try to not look at the coin.”

The Wyldwalkers did just that, pausing temporarily as they rose to the challenge. Niko stared at the coin, and found himself utterly transfixed by it. It latched onto instincts he didn’t even know he had, and he found himself cooing softly at the shiny object.

“My precious…” Niko subconsciously took a step closer to the coin, all depth of his vision vanishing as he stared harder and harder at the coin. He briefly noted the essence covering the coin, but he couldn’t manage to care about it, because it wasn’t important, because it wasn’t shiny. “It’s so shiny. I love it. I want it.”

Niko stepped forward again, before something shifted and the coin was suddenly less shiny, like a pleasant dream he’d woken from. Dissapointed, Niko shifted his head side to side, trying to see the coin from another angle as though he could bring back the gorgeous resplendent shine to it.

“Uhhh… Okay, so Niko utterly failed that one.” Dachna cleared his throat, “Niko? You’re looking a little intense there?”

Startled from his attention, Niko backed up, “Alright, that is really pecking dangerous stuff. What even just happened?”

Skye translated, and shared, “It felt like it was super shiny to me, but I wasn’t super locked in on it like Niko was.”

“Me neither.” Mithel answered with a negative.

Ronald, however, hummed in response, “I think that’s only because Dachna warned us beforehand. I doubt I’d have been nearly as resilient if I wasn’t aware of it.”

“Exactly, but I needed to be sure.” Dachna nodded, “No clue why Niko was hit by it so hard though. Maybe the whole collecting instinct?”

“That would make that invaluable against other beasts, but we’ll have to be careful about Niko.” Ronald shifted his attention to Niko at that, who was feeling decidedly uncomfortable with how everything had happened. “What did it feel like to you?”

“Uhhh…” Niko stepped from one foot to the other in embarrassment, which Skye grinned at, “Like it was precious to me. Like it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, and that I wanted it. Pluck me, I think I’d willingly walk into a trap with that. That was worse than the snake way back.”

The Wyldwalkers cringed at the reminder of the snake incident when they’d first really met Niko, but Skye quickly picked up the topic, “So, if we can test this on other beasts and they have the same response…”

The others nodded along, not needing it to be said that it would be incredibly useful for leading targets into a trap. Of course, Niko didn’t believe that there weren’t caveats to Dachna’s newest pattern, but it was powerful.

What was even more impressive, however, was the sheer number of applications the combination of patterns could be used for.The patterns themselves were primarily for stealth and utility, but they were intensely powerful. Niko doubted that they were common at all, or at the very least he hoped they weren’t. He wasn’t sure how he could deal with people with such abilities.

The team theorized various ways they might use Dachna’s new abilities, leading to the rogue’s insistence that he definitely wouldn’t be using it to steal things. It was mostly out of jest that the Wyldwalkers poked fun at him for having a very clearly thief-friendly skillset, but Niko didn’t expect the man to be dipping into other’s pockets all that much.

After a while, they moved into the forest, and Skye said, “Well, I suppose I’ll go next. Most of my patterning went into reinforcing my first pattern, but I've changed some things up a bit.” The half-elf spoke, and Niko watched as she bounded easily up a tree without a sound. She took a second to steady herself, clearly unpracticed with her new physical capabilities, but she stabilized quickly. Skye then pulsed with essence, and Niko saw her essence color slightly, tinged with something that he identified vaguely as a forest. Interestingly, she was actually much harder to keep track of in the ambient essence, as though the forest itself was trying to shelter her from sight.

Skye lept out from one tree branch to another, easily making the jump and nearly making no noise in doing so. As he watched, he noted that the branch barely moved, and while she wasn’t heavy, it should have been impossible for so little movement to happen. With increasing speed, she darted from tree to tree, and Niko couldn’t help but furrow his brows as he noted that something else was going on as she did so.

He found out what else was going on as Skye dropped to the forest floor in front of them, embraced by brambles, leaves, and budding flowers. She flashed them a grin, striking a pose with her hands outstretched. Before Niko could comment on her appearance, he realized that her hands and arms were covered in rough bark, tipped with thorns shaped like claws.

“Whoa, you look kind of like a dryad,” Mithel stepped forward, about to touch a spike.

Midway, the thorns withdrew, and Skye quickly said, “Don’t touch the thorns. They’re envenomed.”

Mithel hummed thoughtfully at that and stepped back, not so much alarmed as interested, “How good?”

Skye shrugged, “I get the feel that it’s strong. It's paralytic, but I can change the intent behind the venom so it’s less lethal.”

Ronald nodded throughout, and Niko commented, “Straightforward, but strong it seems.”

Skye grinned, “It’s offense and defense in one. It connects me more with the forest, too.”

“Will it work out of a forest?” Dachna asked, before quickly adding, “Probably a dumb question.”

“I don’t think it’ll work as well outside of a forest, but later maybe,” Skye shrugged, “So, yeah, less utility in a city, but it’s much stronger out here.”

Mithel laughed, before putting a hand out to the ground and pulling moisture up and out of the ground and air, visibly pooling it before their eyes. Niko’s mouth hung open at the display, as she said, “I can control liquid. Water seems easy, since it’s not using a lot of essence…” She concentrated, and the liquid condensed from a meter down to half that. Niko took a step away as she condensed it a bit more, “Yep, that’s more expensive. Hold on, lets just try–”

She pointed out and a whiplash of water carved a path though several centimeters of topsoil before trailing up a tree. In an instant, a crescent shaped, wet cut was present in the bark, leaving Mithel nodding in satisfaction. “I can definitely work with that.”

Niko didn’t know why, but seeing that much more classical example of what looked like magic was just thrilling to him. “What else you got!?”

Skye looked briefly dismayed that he got more excited over that display than hers, however her expression of interest and excitement got the better of her as she relayed Niko’s message.

“I can enhance the characteristics of materials,” Mithel declared proudly to a suddenly much more quiet clearing.

“Like… how so?” Dachna asked quizzically.

“I have no idea!” Mithel happily supplied an answer, “But, if it works like how I hope it’ll work, I can use it to improve my alchemy even without having access to better materials.”

“That’s… definitely dedication to your craft.” Ronald politely stated, to which Mithel only scoffed.

“Fine, here, let me try this.” She said, pulling out a flask of orange liquid. There was only a small amount in the container, but Niko recognized it very firmly as their sticky trap flask. He knew it very well, as Niko intended to never be hit by the damned thing again for as long as he lived.

Essence flashed in Niko’s eyes as Mithel charged the flask, then set her gaze at a decently sized tree branch, “I’ll hit that, then we’ll see if Skye can pull it out.”

“Why…? No, nevermind. I’m probably the strongest physically now.” Skye sighed with a shake of her head.

Ronald grinned, “We’ll see.”

Mithel chucked the flask, before they could poke at each other any more. As usual, Niko noted almost instinctively how much essence it was charged with, and knew that Mithel could detonate it at will. This time, she let it touch the branch before detonating the mixture.

And then the orange goo expanded twice over what it normally would have, leaving Niko cringing, “Yikes, I can already tell it's worse.”

Skye snorted, before stepping forward, carefully navigating the edge of the fluffy, foamy gel. It hissed at the air as it continued to expand for a few short seconds, before beginning to contract. Skye waited to be sure it wasn’t going to randomly expand any further, but then grabbed a part of the branch that was sticking out and above the blob. Niko watched her body surge with essence, very little of which actually left her.

“Huh…” She paused, before pulling harder. The liquid stretched, audibly groaning against Skye who now began gritting her teeth and digging her heels into the earth. Niko felt a pulse of power roll out from Skye, before touching the forest around her. Startlingly, he felt an almost-presence descend on their location for a split second, something that felt vast and immense, but that vanished just as quickly.

‘Holy peck, did Skye just poke Alterra on accident?’ Niko clammed up, still staring as a kind of resonance began to form between Skye and the forest. The greenery on Skye’s body grew out rapidly, cladding her form in more bark and bramble. Even her gauntlets grew in size, and with ease she pulled the branch out of the ground.

Skye blew out a low breath, uttering a ‘thank you’ in the same motion, before releasing her empowered form along with a chunk of essence that Niko was certain she’d ejected willingly. Instead of dispersing in the air, the essence ran straight down into the forest floor. Niko lost track of it in the blink of an eye, knowing only that it dispersed in every direction, and the sense of something immense shadowing them went away.

Niko turned to see the others pale as well, “Skye… what did I just feel?”

The half-elf hefted the branch to the side, sparing a glance at the sticky-bomb with open wariness before turning to the others, “I asked the forest for a hand.”

“So, like, the forest has an awareness of things, or?” Mithel glanced at the water cut she’d made on a tree trunk with sudden apprehension.

Skye guffawed loudly at that, “No! Yes? But not like you’re thinking.” Skye quickly spoke upon seeing Mithel’s genuine concern, “It’s far too big to be concerned with virtually anything you could have done to a few trees.”

“That… somehow actually does make me feel better,” said Dachna.

“I’m not sure myself,” Ronald muttered while shaking his head.

“Anyways,” Skye intentionally directed attention elsewhere, “That’s far stronger than it usually is. I’d bet at least twice over?”

“More testing,” Mithel murmured in consideration, “Lots more testing.”

“I guess that makes it your turn.” Niko chittered towards Ronald. Skye didn’t need to translate, the others all turned expectantly towards Ronald as well.

With a smile on his face, Ronald began to charge essence, and Niko was already expecting great things from this display.