Back in the air, they headed mostly northward. Kestra took a moment to focus in on her private retreat realm.

Vostler was up toward her realm's light source, poking at it with interest while Eilith was back in the water, playing with Nicada, who looked blissfully happy. Yorgin had stretched out on the rock nearest the mana seed and was napping, a bubble of mana visible more by the metallic flecks that adhered to it providing him with a comfortable atmosphere.

Ralouf was amusing himself by studying some of the metals. Kestra tried to direct her realm-voice to just him. «Honored Divine Ralouf, are you an Alchemist?»

"Kestra? Ah, I dabble in alchemy. I'm more of a carver, but some alchemical concoctions are useful in preparing my stone, and in polishing it afterward. Did you have some questions?"

She sent her copied scroll of her new technique to appear just in front of the short carver. «I, ah, I made a thing? That's a copy of the technique scroll, and I thought, hey, you've been nice to me and you seemed to have an alchemical interest. Graemire had me sign a non-exclusive licensing contract for the technique with the Jade Pearl Auction House, so, eh, I dunno? Hope you get some use of it?»

Why she felt bashful about giving the gift, she didn't know, but that was a horribly embarrassing stumble.

Ralouf's lips were twitching, but he kindly refrained from comment as he picked up the scroll. He looked it over, then activated it. It turned into golden light and streamed into his forehead.

The smile dropped from his face, replaced with a moment of slack-jawed wonder. Then he called out, "Eilith! Nicada! Come and see what Kestra figured out!"

The call also got Vostler's attention, and the three Elementals made their way over to watch as Ralouf pulled out a nobby, porous bit of stone from his storage device. Then he used the Water Extraction technique on it, pulling out petrichor from the stone, which he further separated into three different oils.

From there, he cast Control Water and pulled a ball of water over to him. He crushed down the rock with his bare hands and then thoroughly mixed the powdered rock with the bit of water he had pulled over, even using the water to further break down the stone. Then he used the Water Extraction technique again, leaving behind a completely dry brick.

"Vos, would you heat this as hot as you like?" he asked, tossing the brick to the Fire Elemental.

Vostler grinned, burning the rock.

And Ralouf used Water Extraction again, pulling out different melted bits from the brink until there remained only a globule of glowing yellow liquid sand.

"I want to do that!" Nicada said.

Eilith shrugged. "It's interesting. Water Extraction Journeyman Alchemy technique. I even gained a few ranks in Alchemy from learning it."

Vostler floated off, having fun making the liquid sand take on all kinds of shapes.

Nicada pouted. "I guess I need to learn Alchemy to learn the technique, then."

Kestra withdrew her attention.

"The others doing well?" Graemire asked.

"I think so," she answered. "I gave Ralouf a scroll of the Water Extraction technique, and he just confounded me by applying it to liquid rock, with Vostler's help, while showing it to Eilith and Nicada. Eilith learned it from the demonstration, and Nicada's now interested in learning Alchemy.

"Back home, we had Goldenwood and Silverwood trees, Mercury Bell flowers, and a few other metal-heavy plants. With metal being a distinct element of mana here, well, I expect that she should be able to focus on a Metal Alchemy garden, though she might do better with what's considered her opposite or opposition garden to start with, just so her own presence doesn't overwhelm her garden."

Graemire asked, "You gave your technique to Ralouf?"

"Well, I figured if Miss Eliza learned it, you did, too, and Ralouf, his first act with me was to help me recover from making that emergency gate. It struck me as an instinctive action on his part, a [Healer]'s instinct. First thing an experienced Lancer learns is to treat the [Healers] well. Potions can only do so much before they're more bane than boon, and no potion I've yet seen can consistently set a bone right."

Graemire's vines shifted around her. "You're so certain I learned you technique from a single demonstration?" He sounded as if he didn't know if that was a compliment.

"Well, you are mana, and from the way Ralouf explained the mana cycle, you already have some potency over elemental Water. The technique is just a fumbling manipulation of unclaimed mana. I expect that Nicada's problem is the Control Water aspect of the technique."

They dove suddenly for the ground. Graemire barely confirmed her safe landing before he shot off, alone, back into the sky.

With her new, sudden distance, Kestra could now see golden light streaming to the Wood Elemental, massive amounts of it. So much light, in fact, that Kestra had to turn her back to it and cover her eyes, and she still felt as if her vision were being seared by the brilliance.

Thankfully, it was light without heat.

Still, Kestra dropped prone, curling into a defensive ball, the best shelter she could give herself from whatever danger her instincts, honed over fifteen years of adventuring, screamed was incoming.

Endless moments caught between frantic heartbeats passed before a BOOM more felt than heard expelled mana all over the place. It was both worse and better than when Graemire had postured in Manager Holla's office.

Congratulations!

You have opened one of your mana apertures!

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

Base Mana Recovery factor increases by 1

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

Quest: Open Your Mana Apertures

Requirements: Open all 12 of your Mana Apertures.

Progress: 6/12 Apertures Open

Rewards:

‎ Sovereign of Mana Title

‎ +25 Mana

+25 Mana Recovery

EXP: 120,000

Congratulations!

You have opened one of your mana apertures!

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

Base Mana Recovery factor increases by 1

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

Quest: Open Your Mana Apertures

Requirements: Open all 12 of your Mana Apertures.

Progress: 7/12 Apertures Open

Rewards:

‎ Sovereign of Mana Title

‎ +25 Mana

+25 Mana Recovery

EXP: 120,000

Congratulations!

You have opened one of your mana apertures!

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

Base Mana Recovery factor increases by 1

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

Quest: Open Your Mana Apertures

Requirements: Open all 12 of your Mana Apertures.

Progress: 8/12 Apertures Open

Rewards:

‎ Sovereign of Mana Title

‎ +25 Mana

+25 Mana Recovery

EXP: 120,000

She felt raw, and a back-of-the-head part of her recognized she was experiencing shock. She wasn't actually thinking as she tried to use mana to look inside her body, to examine just what the changes meant.

Congratulations!

You have successfully taught yourself the [Novice] Grade [Organic Assay] spell!

+100 EXP

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Organic Assay

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

GRADE: [Novice]

Gain comprehension of an organic object. The efficacy of this spell may be increased to higher grades through the caster's increased comprehension of organic systems. The longer this spell focuses on a particular object, the more comprehension the caster may glean.

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

Components: None

Cost: 5 mana per second

≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈

The screens broke her concentration, but after she read and then dismissed them, Kestra used that Organic Assay spell on her own body.

The information at first overwhelmed her. The longer she let herself be sunk into it, though, the more she found herself connecting the things she had learned to gain her precious First Aid skill with the information of what was happening inside her.

All that blood flowing to insulate and support her organs, that was a shock response, and the pulses of heat she felt through the chill in her extremities, that was her nerves adjusting to the rapid change.

The soreness in her body, that was her flesh having to deal with rapid influxes of mana, creating, filling, and emptying a secondary circulation system.

She let her attention divert to the silvery blockages in this growing mana circulatory system, feeling the remaining apertures in her hands and feet. They were both crusty and melty, and Kestra intuited that if she pushed her already quite strained circulatory system with her Mana Manipulation skill, she might manage to collapse them before they solidified again, and harder to break. Yet. Her mana system was heavily abused and needed its own time to heal, else she risked heavily harming herself, perhaps even crippling her mana system.

A flicker-thought of wanting the warmth that Ralouf had shared reminded Kestra she had that Minor Healing spell. She tried to use the mana overloading her body to cast the spell, and her stamina rapidly dropped, drawn out by the spell to enhance her regeneration.

The light seemed to have dimmed, or Kestra had been sufficiently blinded to no longer feel more pain from the brilliance. She removed an arm from covering her face to summon some travel loaf and start eating, not caring about doing more than sufficiently masticating the loaf to the point the healing magic began to draw sustenance from it and not her downward spiraling stamina.

Kestra had eaten through about two kilos of travel loaf. Only with the last half kilo had the nutrient dense food managed to reach her stomach before mana magically ransacked it for the things needed to repair her body. She had had to pause in eating twice to throw up the bits of the loaf that, under normal circumstances, she would have simply pooped out.

The light around Graemire had stabilized to about the level of a second sun. Only now, several hours later, did Kestra feel sufficiently recovered to poke at the other Divine Creatures.

Figuring they would probably want to see this for themselves, Kestra started setting up her gate. It went a lot faster with her increased regeneration rate. Just as it stabilized, she asked, «Graemire's turned into a giant light ball in the sky. Is that normal?»

Kestra hadn't tried to limit her voice, and every head, even the seemingly sleeping Yorgin, jerked at her words.

"Out, now!" Eilith demanded.

Kestra flashed the gate. «Doors are open,» she agreed.

Yorgin was the first out, with Eilith flying through on his heels. The others were no less quick to come and see.

Variations on the question, "What happened?" came from most of them.

Vostler, especially, looked uneasy as he stared up at the glow.

Kestra didn't have much to recount, but they drew the particulars of the conversation she and Graemire had been having from her. Eilith had a sudden look of comprehension as more golden glow curled around her.

It struck Kestra that that had to be a particularly bright glow to be noticeable in the shine from Graemire's own light show.

As Eilith's glow settled down, she smiled, a beautifully happy smile bolstering their spirits. "He's comprehending a Revelation. Don't poke Kestra; her words may have sparked the comprehension, but it's one that he's been coming at for several centuries yet."

Then she turned a mildly irritated look on Kestra. "How long has he been like this?"

Kestra shrugged. "Judging by how that's the moon over there, I've been recovering from the mana blast at the start of it for several hours now. As soon as I was sure I could open the gate, I told you all."

Ralouf's expression gained a concerned intensity, and his hand settled on her shoulder. That expression flashed to startled before settling into something more grim. "You opened five of your apertures since we entered your realm! How long have we been in there?"

"I had one open when I woke up! You opened two this morning, and he ," Kestra pointed to the Graemire second sun, "blasted the rest open since then! This is dangerously fast, and I'm going to be paranoid about warping for a year or more at least!"

"What do you mean, warping?" Yorgin asked, apparently not as interested in watching the Revelation comprehending thing going on with Graemire as the Elementals with them.

"Happens when too much mana is injected in materials too rapidly for the material to adapt. Plants and earthen objects don't seem as badly affected, but moving creatures -- like humans --" she pointedly expressed, "develop oddly, and most just die outright, becoming the restless dead. The Warped are somehow tied up with blights, and that's a mess that takes … well, Elementals on their level to clean up." Kestra gestured to the group that was even now taking to the air to check out their friend.

Ralouf's grimness shifted to an emotion of more concerned mixed with relief. "Well, I've never heard of a blight, so I doubt it's a problem that the Ten Horizons doesn't already compensated for. As for this warping, you've taken up a mana well in you. Your immortality is more assured than ours, and if there's anything I've learned, it is that all things are possible with sufficient time."

"How long do people live in this realm?" she blurted out, Sung Eliza's casual mention of being somewhere between seven and eight hundreds years old bothering her. "And how long are your years?" she added, suddenly realizing the very shifting of seasons might be different.

Ralouf sat down. "We tend to use the Eighth Horizon as our time reference. The Associations are more concerned with that than any other group, and the Eighth Horizon is their domain. That said, most Horizons are fairly close to the Eighth's year, which is twelve moon cycles, each of thirty and a half days. Days on the Eighth Horizon last for twenty and four hours, plus a middling amount that adds up to an extra day every fifth year. These five year cycles are named after the moon cycle they stretch. Those sixty year cycles are called generations."

Ralouf scratched his chin. "Huh. I seem to recall that humans can have as much as three family generations to each annual generation. To be honest, I'm not sure how long most humans live, but True Creatures, like Yorgin and myself, we live until we are slain. Elemental Creatures can only be consumed by other Elementals. I know humans, like plants and bestial creatures, at some point wither, but I don't know when that happens. After a human earns ascension to the Immortal Horizons, that withering is no longer a problem, and they, like True Creatures, live until they are slain."

The short man shot her an amused smile, tempered by genuine concern. "Most people take at least a cycle of years to open each mana aperture. Takes that long for them to soften up again after the in rush of new mana. I suspect that mana well in your realm is aiding you greatly there."

During this exchange, the Elementals had launched themselves into the sky to more closely examine the ball of light that was now Graemire. A fourth figure joined them, and it wasn't anyone from their group. Eilith slipped into pure water and wrapped herself around the new comer.

Ralouf grinned. "Ah, there's Ambrose!"

Kestra was suddenly struck by a realization. "He's going to need to make that oath Graemire asked of you all before she can bring him over to meet me, won't he?"

That wiped the grin off Ralouf's visage. "Yeah. And she can't explain why to him, which will make things … difficult."

"Who among you can read?" Kestra asked.

That earned her a pursed lipped side glance. "I can, and I've seen Yorgin curl up with a good book. I haven't asked the others. Why do you ask?"

Kestra pulled out one of her journals and her mark stick. While flipping to a random blank page, she asked back, "When does an Elemental have a need to read?"

She quickly wrote out a message for Ambrose about the oath, mentioning that Graemire had asked for it to protect a "found potential". She passed it over and asked, "Will your oath allow you to deliver this note to Ambrose, and read it for him should he need the aid?"

Ralouf looked it over, considered for a moment, then nodded. "I'll be back soon," he said, launching himself into the sky.

Kestra put her book and mark stick back in storage.

Yorgin glanced over to her then. "That was both quite smart, and horribly obscene at the same time."

She held out her hand, palm up to the scaled guy, silently asking for his elaboration.

He sniffed. "Desecrating a book!"

"Ah! Well, if it eases your horror, that book is a common style where I come from known as a traveler's journal. They are more a set of glued together loose pages designed for the lightly bound pages to be removed as needed for writing letters and the like. The covers keep the page stacks from getting bent or curled within a pack."

The mild sense of disgust retreated, and an interested curiosity overtook him. "Might I examine it? I promise to return it afterward in the condition in which you hand it to me."

Kestra pulled out the journal she had been taking down notes with from their earlier discussion about her potential paths. She passed it over, and Yorgin quickly became absorbed in his inspection.

"What is this glue made from?" he asked, gently poking the crest of it on the top of the binding block.

"A render of tree sap. Without the ingredients, there's not much use in going through the formula, but it was one of those better rendered from a Water Extraction than a Fire Extraction, though a touch of Heated Reduction did a good job of setting everything in a shelf stable decoction."

"Water and Fire Extractions? These are Alchemy techniques?" Yorgin asked.

"Ah, you slept through it. I gave Ralouf a technique scroll after the Ten Horizons decided my Water Extraction process was a new Journeyman Alchemy technique. He showed it off to the Elementals."

He narrowed his gaze. "Something in particular you want from my friend?"

"Friendship," Kestra said. "His first act on meeting me was to help me recover, and then he set into helping me with figuring out my path. That generosity of spirit is something I admire. He seemed to have an interest at least in Alchemy, and the scroll was something I could give to help show my appreciation. I may be extremely squishy compared to you all, but that doesn't mean I have no means to contribute to a community that includes you."

Yorgin seemed to forget the journal in his hand as he stared at Kestra as if trying to visually dismantle her and figure her out. He was almost as intimidating as the officers of the Free Lancers Company during their occasional recruitment sessions in the Free Lancers Guild. The stuck up pricks made a show of resenting the drives, probably because Lancer guildies were highly irregular, even for mercenary company irregulars.

Kestra allowed a touch of amusement to show in her features as she asked, "Done with the journal?"

Yorgin jolted, a small betrayal of his surprise, before calming down and going back to looking over the journal's construction.

Ralouf, Eilith, and the stone-like man her water form was still wrapped all around descended in their direction.

Ralouf barely got out introductions for the new fellow, confirming he was the missing Ambrose, before Eilith dragged him through her still open gate. Looking to Yorgin, Ralouf asked, "You found a new book out here?"

"It's the bound set of writing pages the little Miss used to send you off with that letter. Look at this binding! It's a clever use for a gum glue. She's also using a treated char stick to write with. Not as permanent as ink, but good for notes. Which she captured from our earlier talk almost as well as most scribes would do. The cover just slides over the gummed pages. Not a book, per se, but quite clever. I want some."

"That's all well and good," Ralouf said, "but I think we'll need to camp for the night. I'll stay out for first watch, to protect our gate guardian, if you want to curl up in the mana well."

Yorgin glanced to the sky. "Yeah. That's going to take a bit. Ambrose may want your help breaking stone down to make soil, and I'll try to get Vostler in with some of the trees here to make more ash for Ambrose to work with, if he needs it. You head in for now. I'll keep Graemire's little potential safe for him."

Kestra piped up. "Feel free to break down anything but the mana well in there, including the cabin. I expect Elementals to have a better sense of how to harmonize the environment than I have. Also, make whatever changes will make it more comfortable for y'all."

Ralouf perked up. "Does that include stone sculpting?"

"Yep," she confirmed. "My only stipulations are don't break the mana well and that the realm should be habitable for humans of the First Horizon and an alchemy garden. As long as you all leave it like that, consider it a blank slab for your creativity. That includes telling me where to move the mana well."

The short man giggled and ran through her gate.