Finding a human student was easy – Tristan just had to look around the various reading nooks and he found several. He gently rapped his knuckles on the table of one who was buried in a book, taking notes on a small pad of parchment. "Excuse me," he said softly.

The young woman looked up. She had curly, brown hair and dark, hazel eyes. Her lips were drawn into a flat expression. "Hmm?" she made an inquiring noise.

"I need someone to do a spell," Tristan said. "And put it into an artificed item. I'm Tristan."

She set the book down, "I am no artificer," she replied. "I mainly focus on imbuement. And I am Hailey."

Felicity flew over and landed on Tristan's head, and handing him the book. "Found it!" she said with pride.

The young woman smiled slightly, "Cute animal companion. And you ensorcelled it to talk."

Tristan chuckled and shook his head, "No. She's not an animal companion, or ensorcelled. Felicity? Show her your pocket dimension." Felicity waved her paw, and the small, black space appeared in the air next to her.

The human looked mildly impressed, "Okay, you have my interest."

Tristan tapped the book and slid it over to her, "I can artifice. And I have items of high enough quality to store the spell. What I propose is this; we work together, we each get an item that can make these extradimensional storage spaces. How's that sound?"

The mage smiled a slight smile, "I could use something like that. On-demand storage that follows me around?" she snatched the book and began flipping, "I can only do Second Order…and…it looks like that would give two cubic feet of storage?"

Felicity grinned, "I can store a lot more than that!" She flicked her tail back and forth, "Praise me for my amazing-ness!"

"You are amazing," Tristan said as he reached a hand up to scratch her head. "Mind grabbing a few of those bits of jewelry I saw you swipe in the market?"

Felicity gasped, "You saw me do that? I thought I was s-n-e-a-k-y."

The mage frowned and looked over the book at Tristan, "You stole from the inter-Realm market?"

"No," Tristan replied quickly. "I run a market. In fact, it will be hosting a field trip on the first week of each Season. You should come and see."

"Interesting. Perhaps. Regardless of where you got it from," She pointed into Felicity's storage dimension, "I would like one of those ruby amulets for my item."

Felicity snagged the object and set it on the table, "What do you want, Tristan?"

"Emerald amulet is fine," Tristan replied. Felicity snagged it and set it down on the table. "Okay, Second Order; give me a second." He set the two objects far apart from each other, took off his gauntlets and gloves, and pulled out his Omnitome to quickly reference the proper spell and gesture.

The mage frowned, "A few items to note. First, the pocket dimension created will follow the user in a fixed place in space. Second, others can access it if they know the exact fixed point in relation to you – in our case, I imagine it will be on our artificed items instead of just following us around. Third, it is not temperature or climate controlled at this lower Order." She set the book down.

Tristan nodded, "Ready?"

"Give me a few minutes to practice the gesture."

Artificing the two items took relatively little time, minus a few failed spell attempts from the female mage struggling over some of the words written in Orcish. Good thing she knows that language, Tristan thought. Otherwise we'd have to find someone else to translate.

In the end, they had joined their essence-weaving efforts together to create two amulets with Pocket Dimension II stored on them. Tristan put the metal chain around his neck and tucked the amulet under the armor to join his family crest. Spinning his partially depleted crucible, he activated the spell.

A small box appeared directly in front of him. An empty, black space with little specks of silver along the sides, top, and bottom. He placed the Omnitome, the clearcool elixirs, all but one of the supreme healing and essence elixirs. Wish I had something similar for my weapons, he thought. Sure, he could move around just fine with the greatbow unstrung, the maul, and the Queen's Wood Staff hanging from loops along the top of his armor's back-left shoulder. But he would have preferred to have them in a pocket dimension for rapid access.

Then again, he thought, as he pulled the elixirs back out, if I am too weak to use the amulet's stored spell, then I am screwing myself over. So I guess I'm only going to use it for stuff I won't need on the fly.

The mage who had helped him, for her part, was ecstatic. "This is awesome! Normally artificed items are really expensive. Hey, would you by chance want to join my study group?"

"I don't really study like tha-"

Hailey shook her head, "No, you misunderstand me. Sorry. I'm not great with people. I have friends who can probably do spells you can't do. If you have more items you can artifice, I'm sure we could get a whole bunch of stored spells for each other!"

"Enticing," Tristan replied. "Perhaps."

"Perfect!" she scribbled a note and handed it to him. "We meet in my quarters on the middle-day of each week."

Tristan nodded, "The eighth, then?"

"Yeah. Think you can make it?"

"I intend to," Tristan replied. "And I'll make sure to bring a lot of artifice-able jewelry."

The next few days passed rapidly, with Tristan dipping between the Fey Realm and the Mortal Realm. Stocking up on various pieces of jewelry and other items that could be artificed and wouldn't be out-of-place; mainly skipping weapons and armor.

The day of Hailey and her classmate's study group came around, and both Tristan and Felicity attended. After some discussion, Tristan had made deals and performed artifice for several offensive spells he knew – primarily fire and lightning elementalism. That was of the most interest for each student was some means of self-defense. As Hailey put it, "Few essence-weavers here focus on combat spells."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Why is that?" Tristan asked. "Surely it could make you a good living."

Another student named Mark, a Beastkin who took after a rabbit, replied. "Why take the risk? There are so many different spell types out there. Fighting carries risks."

The reasoning was sound enough to Tristan, and he supposed that if he was not a warrior and trained to fight dragons from a young age, he would probably have gone down a route of scholarly pursuits and avoided fighting. "Fair enough," he said.

By the end of the few-hour session, Tristan had drained almost all of his essence – leaving just enough for his Citadel Pin to go back to his and Felicity's room. Sadly, the different students were primarily studying spell types that he did not think would be very useful in his day-to-day life. The exception was a spell called Minor Barrier, which could make a buckler-sized barrier of Essence that was opaque and would be colored after his essence.

The ability to summon something like that nearly at-will to use in his offhand was handy enough, but he was informed that it was best used to protect one's hands, as it would hover just above the person's forearm or hand, and could masque the spell gestures they may perform behind it.

Aside from the artificing, he got to experience what the regular students went through. They were discussing an assignment from their Professor, as all of them were in the imbuement course and had taken out loans for their Omnitomes. None of them came from wealth. Resigned to working for the Citadel after they finished their education.

Additionally, they would have to practice spell gestures and phrases in their downtime, or be given research projects, and even told to perform experiments on their own. It was at that point where Tristan felt a bit of pride, as he could share his extensive knowledge of medicinal herbs thanks to his grandfather's training in how to make some potions.

Tristan, feeling a bit sorry for them after they began to wrap up for the night, pulled out the remaining amulets and rings. "Each of you should take some of these and sell them in the inter-Relam market tomorrow. Pay off your debt so you can do whatever you want with your life."

This gesture seemed to catch them all off-guard, and they profusely thanked him. He just waved away their thanks, saying, "I'm very wealthy. This is the least I can do for giving me some insight."

Leaving the meeting, Hailey gently grabbed his arm outside. "I…I don't quite know what to say."

Tristan smiled, "If you end up wanting to become an elixir master, and want a place to work your craft unimpeded…well, I may have a job for you in the future."

"Oh?"

"Yes. I would like to have an imbuement specialist on my payroll, as it were. Just keep your eyes open for news about that new Realm opening up, and the field trip that goes along with it, on the first week of the next Season." He spun his crucible and used the last bit of his essence to return to his and Felicity's room.

Opening the door, he walked in. Felicity was already asleep on the bed, and after stripping down out of his gear he cuddled up next to her.

Another few days passed and Tristan was extremely busy throughout. The whole time was spent practicing spells. New spells. Artificing the two water elementalism spells – Waveclinger's Fins, and Waveclinger's Adaptation – onto another few amulets. He could feel all the clanging of the different necklaces against each other under his chest plate. I should really come up with a better means of carrying them around, he thought.

Then, an idea hit him, and he went over to the gnomes, and after discussing his idea they were able to whip up exactly what he had envisioned – a belt that could go on over his armor, and had slots for each of the different amulets. A cloth sleeve could be pulled over it to hide them, and thus he was able to move around much more freely. And, it gave him plenty of slots where he could place more amulets with spells stored through artifice.

The belt itself was of fine enough craft that he could put a spell on it, but he held off – wanting to use the rejuvenation spell he would soon have access to upon it.

The day arrived. The tenth of Wither Season. Tristan made sure he was perfectly punctual, and met Eloise at the portals in the inter-Realm market. She was standing before a white and gold portal that shimmered. "Lord Tristan. Ready for your little venture?"

"I am," Tristan replied.

She nodded, "Then you go through first. No Disguise Form, please. I've arranged for an escort."

Tristan stepped through and the sight that he witnessed caused his breath to catch in his lungs. He was standing on a huge, white pedestal with a set of white stairs with gold inlay, ascending up the side of a cloud. The whole platform was covered with grey-cloth stalls as people peddled wares.

A literal cloud, as he looked out in all directions and could only see clear, blue skies with white, puffy clouds scattered throughout – clouds with buildings upon them.

And the people he saw were magnificent specimens. Gorgeous men and women with burnished skin of various metallic hues – bronze, gold, silver, and platinum. Their hair was equally shiny, but always a slightly different hue than their skin's. Angelblood heritage. Pure-blooded people.

And flapping around, flying from place to place in these buildings and cities amongst the clouds, were Celestials. Hybrids of people with regal birds of prey – primarily looking like Angelblood with wings and minor features like talons, a few were more bird-like. And some were wearing armor that shimmered.

One such individual saluted him as he finished getting his bearings. "You must be our visitor from the Citadel." The gold skin with silver hair adorned with leaves of silver were overshadowed by the massive pair of white wings extending from their back. Their armor shone with the brightness of the sun reflecting off of the snow, and Tristan had to squint to see the slight, drawn look on their face.

Eloise walked through behind Tristan, "Ah. Good. You're here." She was short, terse, but respectful as she bowed slightly at the waist. "How are the kids, Forsych?"

"Well enough," he replied in a gruff voice. "This the one I'm escorting, yes?"

"Correct," Eloise replied. She turned to Tristan, "He'll take care of you. The Heavenly Realms are probably the second-safest place for you. Well, third-safest, behind your Realm and the Citadel." She looked around the platform, "Oooh, interesting. I think I may shop a little." She walked over to a stall and began haggling.

Forsych walked over to Tristan and held out a hand, "Well met."

Tristan shook the hand with a forearm grip, "Likewise. I'm here to help see a dragon to their final rest."

"Mhmm. Eloise told us of a dragonslayer who can absorb the crucibles of the fallen. And not just for power. Though that will surely be a benefit."

I hadn't even thought of that, Tristan thought. If this dragon is incredibly old, they must have a massive crucible. And I get a portion of that as essence capacity. He looked to the stairs past Forsych, "What exactly is the Heavenly Realm? Just clouds with buildings on them?"

He let out a brief laugh, "No. We must fly elsewhere. May I pick you up?" he clacked his hawkish feet on the ground, the long, pointed talons looking quite dire.

"Are we going to be falling?" he asked.

"Yes." Forsych waved him over, and the two walked to the edge of the platform atop the cloud. Once more, Tristan's breath caught in his lungs. Expanding out beneath them was what he could only describe as paradise. Rolling, green hills with bountiful fields filled with crops. Rivers that meandered and emptied into small lakes with swirling eddies that carried on their sinuous paths. Small clusters of buildings near each other, making small villages. Forsych pointed down to a distant building just on the edge of the horizon. "Over there. It is a few miles away."

Tristan nodded and braced his legs, spinning his crucible. "I will glide on these mighty wings!" he shouted as he jumped up and used Wing Glide. The phantasmal, silver wings extended and Felicity flapped off his head before descending alongside him.

Forsych followed a split-second after, "A dragonslayer who can fly? Intriguing."

Tristan nodded, "I can't go up, but I can glide down."

"How fast can you go?"

"Decently fast."

"Good. Come." Forsych led the way, gliding down at a slightly steeper angle. Tristan rolled his shoulders back, which angled his wings down a bit, and he gained speed as he followed the escort.

"This place is gorgeous," Tristan said.

Felicity nodded, "It sure is pretty. Not as nice as home, but still really pretty!"

"The skies above are where the Realm Protector and the upper crust of society live," Forsych said over his shoulder so they could hear him. "We literally have a two-tier system. But it is a peaceful, calm, and serene existence. Minus the occasional Incursion."

"I'd like to meet the Realm Protector when we are done with this task," Tristan shouted back.

"You will. Highlord Yoriand is expecting it."

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