February 2, 2019, 7:46 pm. Forty five seconds after the walking puppy disappeared into the forest.

With the Taken gone, and Rufka finishing her inspection of the cabin, I take a moment to open my ability screen. While wondering about how messy those Web abilities might be for the very fluffy Poolegg, I realize I'd been so distracted by my physical rewards, I'd forgotten to look at what Channelled Casting does. So I open it up to take a look.

"Allows 2 channeled Spells or Abilities to be maintained at the same time without Focus costs."

Focusing on it slightly, I'm able to determine that it has three ranks maximum, and if I invest another point, it'll go up to three channeled Spells or abilities.

When Rufka comes back, confirming that nothing important is missing, I convince them to join me for a quick stop. There's a door I visited a long time ago that I've been meaning to return to.

As I fly into the clearing near the church where the others were taken on the day we arrived, I can't help but frown at it. It's... kinda hideous. My early work shows how little I knew about crafting with stone. And the less said about the plumbing, the better.

I'm tempted to make changes, but...

"I still can't believe you desecrated a two-hundred year old temple," Rufka says with a chuckle.

Even as I'm about to object, Rufka raises her hands.

"I know, I know. You told me. Still, it's funny to see."

"Was busy worrying about my life," I grumble to myself as we descend through the poorly fortified turret, since it's the most easily accessible route from the sky.

"You did this, tel'thoni?" Kellica asks, running a hand along one of the steps I left jutting out of the temple's walls. "After only a day of knowing how to use magic?"

"Kinda," I answer, frowning at the steps. They're practical but ugly. So ugly. They don't have any extra traction, nevermind artistic flourishes. "Technically, I started using magic a long time before I came to Akilo."

"Oh?" Kellica asks, tilting her head in my direction. Which leads to me explaining about my childhood. An explanation that's soon interrupted, since we're soon standing before the rune-covered door in the basement.

As my eyes trace over the runes, I follow the flow of mana through them as I read out the words, my voice rising in pitch halfway through. “This node has been claimed and sealed by Uthica of clan Halterin in accordance with directive 24.1 of the Lathian Conclave.”

"This is related to Uthica!" I practically shout, turning to Rufka who's smiling at me.

"Registered user detected. Access granted."

“Quest updated: Knock knock. Description: Open Uthica’s door in the Goddess Vaus’ temple basement on Akilo. Requirements: open 1/1 doors. Reward: 5 iron rank integration points.”

Even as the messages appear, the door slides open, revealing...

An empty room?

Stepping forward, I stop myself just before I cross the threshold. I inspect the room for magic or traps or... anything. Rufka and Kellica stand beside me. But the only thing I see inside is a single piece of broken pottery.

"Looks clear," Rufka says after more than a minute standing at the door.

"Uhm. Agreed. But it might just be too subtle for me to detect," Kellica says, from where she's kneeling by the edge of the door.

"Nah. You saw how bright it was before Lexi stepped up to it. Now it's as dim as Ael'thoni," Rufka replies, drawing a soft chuckle from Kellica while taking a step through the door. Before she crosses, I Pause time. Just in case. But nothing happens. Other than her taking a step into the room, of course. I definitely don't Pause a second time just to admire her form.

Nope.

She strolls around the room, her hand on the wall until coming to a stop above the broken piece of pottery. She holds it up, flipping it over then grins in our direction, waving us closer. Remaining ready to drop into Pause again, I join Rufka, accepting the offered pottery shard from her. Our prize for opening what doesn't seem to have been a particularly secure door.

It's similar in style to the patterns on the side of the building, a depiction of Vaus and Astra, though this is more intact, showing them standing across from each other. The colours are faded, but part of me knows that Astra was once white and Vaus had been midnight-black with a golden circle between them. The gold is the only part of the relief that hasn't faded. The piece of pottery, our only real loot, isn't even magical. Well, not any more magical than everything else surrounding us. Even so, I feel a sort of connection to it. Something less to do with the magic, and more to do with… a feeling of familiarity.

"This is pre-integration," Rufka mumbles, her hand caressing the faded imagery. "Mum's gonna flip."

"You're sure?" Kellica asks while stepping past me.

"Mhm. See the way the edges have faded. After integration, the artist subclass let users figure out how to avoid the uneven fading. And the mana-signature is too uneven."

Focusing more closely on the mana, I think I can make out what Rufka's talking about. There are... clumps of different elemental affinities. But it's so subtle I missed it on my first inspection. Well, I'm glad we found something. Cause I was feeling pretty bummed about the empty room.

We don't bother going upstairs as I teleport us directly to Theria's again.

The others are gathered near Theria's eating, and Theria gets up as we approach, coming to meet us. We've barely finished our greetings when she hands me a letter from Beth. Actual physical paper and everything. She hands a similar one to Rufka.

"Hey kid,

Looks like we're going to be a little longer than planned. Genitha's 'friend' needs us to take care of some stuff for them. Nothing too challenging, but we'll be a few days. In the meantime, you should head to Glimmering Sands. We've arranged for transport to the next dungeon. It's a combat dungeon that Genitha says has much higher than normal rewards. I'll tell you the details in person. If she's right, it'll be more than worth the extra travel time. Plus, it's outside the Aetherium and the M'tari's territories. Which is important for other reasons.

Not sure if you heard about it yet, but we're also tracking down Genitha's missing property.

Tell Josh... well, tell him I'm... even if I'm not the original... I still... you know.

Anyway, take care of our tribe. I know you can.

Beth."

Huh. I'll admit, I'm a little surprised they're not ready to meet up. We spent nearly a week doing Elementalist's Peak. Attached to the letter is the estimated arrival time of the ship in Glimmering sands. I glance over at Rufka and she gives me a half-smile, her ears twitching slightly. "Guess we're headed back to the beach."

"Looks like," I agree. I gather the others and discover Beth sent most of us a letter. Not Kellica, of course. Unsurprising, since Beth didn't even know her when we left.

It doesn't take long to agree to depart for Glimmering Sands, and with a brief thank you to Theria, we teleport beneath the empty tree of Nexus point 392, spending the night at Raz's.

He's not able to see us, busy with other tasks for the System. Then we spend a day just flying closer, mostly to avoid the attention that popping out of nowhere might bring. In the evening, I set up a new underground bunker, but instead of a temporary residence, I create another teleportation room and we return to Raz's, who's still unavailable. Then in the morning I teleport us back, leaving another rabbit themed hole in the ground.

Our return to Glimmering Sands is quiet, at least between Rufka and I, as the settlement appears on the horizon with the sun high above us. The residents haven't been idle. Most of the bricks from the falling tower have already been cleared away, and the buildings look rebuilt. The tower itself hasn't been restored, but it has been redesigned, a new open air garden running up one side.

We land at the designated landing platform. Instead of the casual greeting we got last time, this time there are a pair of K'tharn who look us over. They glower but wave us through once they notice Tipan. Once on the ground, I can see signs of where the blocks fell. But only because I'm looking for them. The holes in buildings have already been patched over, and it's only the change in designs on some of them that even show there was damage. Also, there are still a couple of the blocks resting between some of the buildings, but I notice one of them has already been converted into a patio.

There are a lot of K'tharn in the streets, and it's only as we're making the way up the steps to the Inn they stayed at last time that I remember that they were going to have a festival soon. The Great Tidal Festival. And as I check again, I confirm that there are indeed decorations praising the Deepest Court. Whoever that is.

Focusing on the decorations doesn't reveal anything, but when we make it through the doors of The Ocean's Breeze, where a familiar black and white K'tharn is fiddling with a new set of ornaments, I Focus on a sculpture not unlike the yin-yang symbol hanging in the center of the room.

"Object Analyzed: Ward of the Depths."

"This talisman is created in the deepest parts of the M'tari Acendancy to pay homage to the Deepest Court. The secrets to its creation are well hidden, while its effects are equally well known. Any who spend eight hours within thirty-three meters of this talisman will gain the ability to breath water and improve any water-based skills at an increased rate for twenty-four hours."

[Wyonna]: "That is one heck of an essence-hungry enchantment. It looks like it takes an iron-rank water essence every two hours or so. Pefe must be spending a McDuck's ransom to keep it running."

"A what's ransom?" I ask, squinting at Wyonna's last comment but then hold my hand up to forestall her explanation.

"Oh! Hello there. Didn't expect to see you back so soon after how your last visit went," Pefe says as she spins around, smiling at Roberts before looking to the rest of us. "I'm afraid we don't have anything but hammocks available. All my rooms are booked."

"Hammocks?" Roberts asks while I look more closely at the ornaments. In just two weeks, she's managed to change out almost every one of them.

"Mhm. Just for the festival, like you suggested," Pefe agrees, nodding vigorously. "I kept a few just in case you came back."

"Thank you. That was quite considerate of you," Roberts replies, bowing slightly towards Pefe.

She laughs. "They're cheap and take up hardly any Storage space. It was no trouble. And I'm afraid you'll need to set up near the North beach. It's our designated mana-form zone this year."

"Of course. And the North beach is?"

Pefe pauses in her adjustment of one of the ornaments, then laughs before giving us directions to a location nearby. Then she pulls several hammocks out of her Inn's storage space, which she explains to Roberts is quite separate from her personal storage space. As Roberts offers to pay for them, Pefe leans forward, patting his hand. "I'll have none of that. These aren't even enchanted."

And so, with a bunch of hammocks woven out of what appears to be a green fibrous material I suspect is the local equivalent of seaweed, we walk to the North beach.

Before we even get there, we're greeted by a throng of K'tharn. Even in Aethire, the only time I saw K'tharn packed this tight was when we visited the Desh'mersa stadium.

"I don't see anywhere to set up our hammocks," I note, looking over the packed crowd.

"Well I can't even see the water," Rose grumbles, causing me to look back at him. It's easy to forget when we're all flying around, but his diminutive stature does make it hard for him to see. Honestly, it's a little weird that I can see over most of the K'tharn. But they tend to be around my height, and I only barely need to go up on my tip toes. While testing just how far I can see, I happen to see an area further up the beach where the K'tharn aren't packed in as tight. And where there are multiple pillars with hammocks strung between them

Pointing it out, we set off through the crowd, nearly getting separated several times despite a conscious effort to stay together. There's a different feel to the K'tharn here than the ones in Aethire. More... vibrant. Again, not counting the Desh'mersa fans.

They also have a lot more tattoos, which are clearly visible to my mana-sight despite being hidden beneath their fur. They seem to be temporary, given how much mana they're throwing off. When I ask Rufka about it, she leans closer and whispers, "They're letting users know their... preferences. The one with a half-circle and dozens of curving lines, she likes group recreation. And see her, with the closed circle with only two lines inside? She prefers only one thiani. Preferably with a long-term commitment."

As I look around, I realize there are at least a dozen different patterns. And even then, most of them have variations in addition to the core shapes Rufka points out.

"Is this a mating festival?" I ask as we finally break free of the crowd and near the pillars.

"It's unlikely that most of these K'tharn have unlocked the right to bear children," Tipan says with a shake of her head. "If only it was so easy."

Right. Somehow, I managed to forget that I need the System to give me permission to have kids. Shuddering, we make our way further up the beach to an empty set of pillars. We could just stay at Raz's, but everyone seems to be in agreement about a change of scenery. The pillars are all marked with signs that indicate that users are only to manipulate enough stone to secure their hammocks. Looking around, I see that there are minor flourishes on the anchors, but otherwise, everyone else has followed the guidelines.

So I do the same, securing each end with small anchors that are perfect replicas of Smoulder in full 'flame-on' mode. I consider having her hold the ends in her mouth, but decide to go with her sitting on it instead. Rather not have her get miffed at the art and destroy it in the middle of the night.

As I'm testing the strength of the hammock, Rufka plops down next to me. Looking to where she was setting her hammock up next to mine, I see she skipped any sort of artistic flourish beyond imprinting her name over the anchor. My inspection of everyone else's work is cut short before it can begin when Rufka pulls me up against her. "Cuddle time."

I laugh, snuggling in tight.

This visit's already looking a lot better than our last.