When morning eventually arrived, the three girls began preparing for the day with breakfast and considerations for their confrontations with family. All of them were aware that such a meeting was going to be complicated, but things had just managed to get a bit more complex.

Sryine blinked several times, still absolutely exhausted and unable to focus at all. It was really bad, her mind felt like a total haze even while her body had energy for days. At that point, she was even being reliant on the flame to provide her with an artificial energy boost, a form of caffeination or energy drink that went almost to the extreme. Vwyx could almost wish she was that lucky, that maybe she should find a way to over supplement on the flame too for the same purpose, because she was also similarly exhausted.. just with her body as tired as her mind. She had technically managed to achieve more sleep than Sryine, by having successfully blinked unconscious in a couple of intervals overnight.. only to then awaken a short while later. The very first thing she had progressed to with the wake of the morning sun was to amend the backpack with the changes she had deemed necessary overnight.

However, neither of them were very happy with the state of the other, this having had an impact on some of their plans. Vwyx had wanted to confront Sryine with a request to provide them with a warm morning after a cold night, but discovering Sryine’s condition.. it wasn’t sensible to ask her to play with the flame in such an environment. Sryine meanwhile was going to ask Vwyx to craft up some kind of water instrument she could practice with, something that could safely collect, contain, and project water with little effort.. just as long as she could provide it with such a supply. Watching Vwyx sleepily struggle with the backpack was enough for Sryine to understand that this really wasn’t a good time.

Riyxia was the only one of the three who was then completely refreshed by morning. Realizing the state of her friends, Riyxia took upon herself all of the responsibilities for preparing breakfast, with hope that a hearty meal would give them all a bit of an extra boost. She realized that almost unexpectedly, most of the food she had obtained had been stuff that was best served warm, but dinner considerations the night before made it clear why her interests might have been in that direction. A warm meal appealed well to their flame and its own appetite. To that end, she made sure to do her best to keep all of the food as warm as possible, while also protecting herself from another burn incident.

Her cooking environment started quickly making her feel dry in the process, like the fire elements in the area were being given so much more priority and consideration. Heat was good, it was an open flame which she had to avoid. As meal preparation progressed, the other two girls were drawn closer not only because of the selection of smells available, but due to the inviting dry warmth that was also being projected. By the time breakfast was prepared and served, the other two girls felt like they had already dined on a quality breakfast of some well done flame elements, the food itself just being almost an added bonus. Neither girl would have claimed the food wasn’t tasty, but in their sleepy state they ended up quickly forgetting exactly what food had actually been served.. it had just been so full of warmth.

Sryine was thinking carefully around the process and how everything had worked out. A controlled amount of flame, to force the wood elements in the area to in turn control the water elements. It was a synergy of rivals to deal with a third factor. Of course, wood stuff had plenty of reasons to be afraid of her, a couple drops of her blood right now could obliterate a piece of wood’s elements into pure nothingness. But if instead she used her might to care for such a wood, to spare it, that wood could in turn protect her from any watery threat. Even Riyxia’s cooking showed the trick to making that work. Direct contact with the flame was destructive, but the warmth of the flame could do wonders if that was instead controlled. All of such still appealed to the flame element, but would require another element to act as transport, something that was used to the presence of the flame. Her previous favourite, the sky element, was actually perfect for this sort of thing. However, not in the form she had been using, lighting wouldn’t cut it, what she needed was to carefully harness the wind.

Conjuring up a wind, she wrapped it around her glowing arm, sharing the heat of her flame with it. Once done, she projected that wind around her, holding it into the open air of the clearing. She could feel the area rich with the presence of the flame, enriched further by herself. Sustaining this, she also conjured a collection of water and held it into the windy shell. The bubble was so constrained it almost appeared solid. She had worried for a moment that she had forgotten something, but of course her current environment was already filled with the wood element, nature was abundant with it in this area. She couldn’t even focus very well, but control seemed to happen so naturally, the high pressure force of the water looked like it could even crush solid stone. She compressed all of this even further, into the shape of a small ball which she held in her hands. The ball itself was inflexible, tangible.. even curious in a subtle way. Such water felt dry.. her hand wasn’t even getting wet holding it. She could feel the message presented by her actions, proof that her own abilities could keep her safe from water, while also controlling such water to assert dominance over any rival flames. All that was required was to stay in control of her own flame, to keep safe the factors that would help her in this process, to work together. It was a harmony of the elements, and the nature of her own flame really liked the cycle of dominance it projected.

Vwyx was also perplexed by the options offered by such warmth. Fighting against the astral flame was intimidating, fighting against her own. This feeling was worse when considered with the effect of then gathering too much of the flame into her as a result, ending up like Sryine was in the process, or even having unexpected problems with the fragment. Fire wanted to run rampant, they needed something to counter it. Warmth and Cool, they really ran hand in hand. She had even witnessed just how much of an impact cold could possibly have on the flame, especially when it was invited by drawing away the flame. With this, the presence of a strong cold could shift the presence of a strong warmth.. just as the reverse was true too. Crafting with frost.. it might not be impossible, even if it was a painful idea to even consider. But such solid forms were very natural to her gift, and in reality she could control frost simply by inviting it somewhere she denied the flame. She could even manipulate warmth by driving the warmth towards her by having it denied in a place brimming with cold.

She tried such, turning to the backpack and the fragment within, forming a case of solid frost over the fragment that was already brimming with the flame. This forced a circulation of the heat from the flame, projecting a bunch of extra warmth through the metal and out through the back, it was actually abundantly warm. She wasn’t wearing the backpack at the time, but remained in direct contact with it, her hand pressed upon it.. and feeding upon such an abundance of extra flame had started having the tips of her fingers begin to faintly glow purple. She removed the ice casing, putting the backpack on so that she could focus upon her hand instead. She then wrapped her fingers in a mesh of frost, a chill that initially felt very numbing and uncomfortable. Upon removing such frosted wraps, she found the purple glow had faded slightly, that it had diffused further along her hand so that it wasn’t as concentrated. However, even a short while of such exposure was rough on her, so it’s not like she could present this as a solution for Sryine. Instead, it possibly formed a way she could contain and direct dangerous flames into less dangerous conditions. In fact, it might even be possible to contain a flame inside a frost prison, though the rivalry between both would put constant demands on her just to ensure that the frost was not overwhelmed by such a flame.

Having made such realizations, Vwyx started carefully adjusting their supplies to also be resistant to the frost. If she was about to start working with something as dangerous as frost, she needed to ensure that herself and her two other flame-affinity friends didn’t suffer from it. Stone did not suffer much from the flame, but actually could achieve very little in the presence of frost’s overwhelming force. Frost instead appealed very keenly to elements of the sky, an element that thus weakened the influence of stone. That was a rough idea, not only was sky stuff far more Sryine’s think than Vwyx’s.. sky stuff still remained sort of intimidating for her. It might even now be easy to see why, so many factors of the high altitude sky were blisteringly cold. This left her at a bit of an impasse, but even in her sleepy state she figured something out there too. Just like how cold and heat could manipulate each other, she could use her ability with stone to her advantage here too.. simply by reversing it. By taking away a thin layer of the stone element protecting them, she would provide a space for the sky element to take over, creating a sealed air space that added insulation from the cold. Reversing elements was actually such an easy and effective solution, much like how Sryine reversed the light of her arm overnight by saturating natural darkness. In fact, if Sryine could command energies such as light, maybe forcing her arm to contain the light using her gift would be a simple alternative to stopping such a glow.. by denying such light a presence beyond it.

Once Riyxia finished cleaning up after breakfast, she found the other two talking and trading notes and observations from the morning, appearing a bit less tired in their own excitement. Sryine’s arm was also not visibly glowing at the time, a successful application of Vwyx’s idea. Sryine knew that containing such energies though would have them dissipate slower as a consequence, but that could still possibly prove useful too. Her illusions didn’t fool instruments, and her illusions did nothing about the existence of elements in the area, so not walking around flooding the place in something that would be of interest to a skilled researcher such as Ieqyisa might actually be a very bright move. Such also helped in the event of any sudden unexpected injury, containing the energies of her arm would actually stop a sudden blaze before it might then happen. Without an illusion though, the observation of any injury would look very strange in its coloration, so she would have to at least be careful to not be seen in the moment of any injury. In that thought, it would be far better to then simply do her best to not actually get injured enough, she’d already sliced open her arm enough as it was.

At that, the three were generally ready to make the last step of their journey, Riyxia taking her turn getting used to the backpack as the others prepared their family offerings. Sleep might have been elusive for most of them, but there was nothing that could be done about that for the moment. Riyxia however knew that they would need to find a way to account for another night of sleep into their plans, her friends were in no condition to do anything dangerous while being like this.. no matter how much they might deny it. She would however have plenty of time to consider such needs once they reached the village, she would have a lot of nothing to do while the others met up with their families. With that thought, Sryine sent them off once more, again instantly arriving at their destination. Vwyx looked around at the nostalgia around her, memories of the place returning to her as she could see her family’s home across from the trees. Sryine decided to at least stick around until the others had reached their destination, staying with Riyxia as Vwyx rushed ahead towards her home before them. Vwyx quietly passed through the back gate, then instantly being spotted by her sister who was carrying a supply of wood into the workshop.

“Sis! By the divine, you’re back! Gosh, it’s been like forever! Half a year, or around there at least, you left while the leaves were blue, and now they have gone to their autumn red. Oh my word, you’ve missed so much.” Vwyx’s sister was quick to set down the wood and throw herself forward into a hug. Vwyx accepted the gesture, herself reflecting on how much more everyone else had missed of her. She knew she wasn’t even exactly the same person everyone here knew her to be, she wasn’t even exactly the same kind of human as everyone else either. Even considering herself as someone completely different, her previous thoughts about not belonging at all to such a family had changed. Of course much of her didn’t belong here anymore, but there was still that part of her that did, and she knew she shouldn’t deny that part of her this opportunity.

“I said I would bring back some stuff from the city, and I felt this might be a really good opportunity. Let’s go into the workshop, you should see what some of this stuff does.” Vwyx picked up some of the wood her sister was carrying and headed off in the direction of the workshop. Her sister however went up to Sryine, having recognized her as well. “Thank you so much for taking care of my sister and bringing her back safely. Please come inside, make yourself comfortable. I’ll find a good spot for your bag too..” “Oh, this, thanks but no.. I really have to be going myself, after all. We all have our own responsibilities now, none of us have time to run around chasing balls anymore, right?” Vwyx's sister was visibly disappointed Sryine wouldn't be staying, but she had grown used to the need for being responsible, she certainly would refuse to be anymore a burden.

“Piff, especially ones that don’t exist. Though that reminds me, I need to get some of the ball bearings from storage too.” “In one of the boxes? How about I go bring you such things while you and your sister have time to talk.” Vwyx’s sister seemed thankful for Riyxia’s offer, accepting it as she ran back to the workshop. Sryine meanwhile took the opportunity to continue towards her own task, slipping an illusive illusion over her as she left before anyone else had noticed.

Riyxia technically had very little ability to identify which box might be the one needed, being neither used to the sorting nor labeling of any of the storage. She did have plenty of unnatural advantages in the process, however. Pulling out one of the comsets again, she quickly scanned over the composition of materials in storage. As predicted, most of it was wood, only a small section contained metals. Her spectre dove though that section of the storage, itself rapidly passing through boxes in search for the round metals she had been asked to find. Only one box contained anything that could be considered a spherical metal, and it was reasonably heavy. Rather than going to pick it up, her spectre possessed the box itself and made its own way back to her. Simply to put up appearances, she put her hands over the box in a way that looked like she was carrying it, though her possession of the box took all effort away from her physical form.

Returning to the workshop, she found Vwyx presenting gifts to her sister, demonstrating practical functionality with how it helped with some of her sister’s current projects. Riyxia meanwhile took notice at just how slow and inefficient it actually was, Vwyx could have finished any of these projects in a couple of moments if she made use of her augmented gift. Still, that really wasn’t something to share with the others, this advantage was already leaps and bounds better than their normal. Riyxia set the box down near the entrance, stepping back outside to provide some room for the current conversation. Getting some time then to simply look around, Riyxia noticed a slight haze to everything around them, something she might not have noticed had she not gotten used to working with the flame so much. It was a blanket of shimmering, still faint.. but blending everywhere. It reminded her of the sandy coast near the fire mountain.. there was almost certainly a vent nearby. Making further use of the headset, she looked around. The density of the flame grew strongest at the opposite side of the village, probably a distance beyond. That would be in the direction of the observatory.. Khyzae had really been following a vent. The whole area however was a blanket of woodland, having a vent nearby that didn’t just kill all of the trees even seemed remarkable.

This did however present her with another idea. Sryine was not the only one who could wander around unseen, though Riyxia’s range was much more limited. Stepping forth as her spectre again, Riyxia left her body to relax and look around from the yard while she started drifting around the village. Bound to her body, she was still limited as to how far she could travel.. a limitation she still remained unaware of its boundary. Even more so, the growing aptitude she had for the whole process gave her the impression that she could travel farther than she might have been limited before, any strain of distance seemed much weaker than it should have been. This could provide her another avenue to explore, another way to get information, another option at her disposal.

While waiting with Vwyx physically, Riyxia set off to check out the village spectrally, searching for any signs of Liyuzhe. It was safe to assume that Liyuzhe would be ready for them, prepared with any number of devious traps for them to stumble upon, she would have to work to uncover such traps before it was too late.. to form her own advantage.