While Bevel didn't finish mapping out the changes we needed to make to her Memory Palace, it felt like she was close.

Close enough that we might be testing it that evening.

I looked out from the temple's balcony which hung over a thousand foot drop with little more than a few feet of unenchanted stone to support it.

Despite having used the enchanted mirror to contact Tamrie over breakfast, I felt the distance more keenly than the drop below.

Or maybe it was the closeness of Arizar I was really feeling.

Was my affection for Tamrie so weak that merely spending a day in the presence of another woman was enough to erode it?

Except, no. It wasn't being around Arizar that was doing that.

It was the compressed time.

Every time I made use of it, that was yet another step away from Tamrie.

Arizar was simply present in a way Tamrie couldn't be. Neither in Memory Palace or otherwise.

There was… well, Arizar and I shared a passion for both spellcraft and creation. And a similar shared sense of responsibility, a need to make the world a better place and the drive needed to grow to do so.

And, of course, there was how well she got along with Bevel.

Even as I'd been talking to Tamrie, Arizar had held two simultaneous conversations with the Shapers who'd been assigned to help repair Overflow City. Which was what she'd chosen to call it, in honor of its old purpose.

With our morning calls done, her palatial pavilion was folding itself up behind us. The process was significantly more involved than the unfolding, since she had to direct it to prevent things from getting accidentally crushed.

"Sorry," Bevel said, suddenly plopping down next to me, having returned from wherever she'd flown off to after breakfast.

"Huh? What're you sorry for?" I asked, scrunching up my brow as I shifted to look down at her.

"For making you wait to go back. I heard you talking to Tamrie this morning," Bevel said, unable to look up at me.

"Hey, kiddo, I'm having a great time. I just… I wish Tamrie was here having a good time with us," I said, pulling her into a side hug. "I was being stupid."

"Guess it was your turn," Bevel said, bopping my chest with her head before pulling away. "Ready to check out some more awesome magitecture?"

"Magitecture? Is that even a word?"

"Sure… it's like magical architecture," Bevel said, waving a hand. "Stuff like the foothills."

"You know what, fair. Yeah, I'm definitely ready for seeing new magitecture," I said, ruffling her hair, turning to see Arizar kneeling down and rolling up the last few folds of her blanket manually.

I shook my head, dismissing my worries best I could. Helping Bevel grow while scouting out useful resources. That's what the day was about. And I could enjoy Arizar's presence without choosing to act on it. I'd endured far worse than having to be uncomfortable because I was attracted to more than one woman at once.

No matter how foreign the feeling was.

The next spot on our list was a Celestial mana well. It was a long way outside of our territory, and took us most of the morning to find.

A valley as long as the entirety of my domain lay below us. Which was impressive, cause it was also only two feet long.

"That is really fraying weird to look at," Bevel said, hand held to her head.

Neither Arizar or I had the same issue, but we both had an affinity to offset the effect, to a degree.

"Is it just me… or is everything moving faster?" I asked, kneeling down to squint at the animals within. There didn't seem to be anything larger than a housecat, though there was plenty of variety.

"You're correct. It's a minor effect, perhaps ten percent faster than what we're experiencing," Arizar said, kneeling down next to me, pulling out her grimoire, a white book bound in scales of what I was pretty sure had come from a dragon. She paged through it for a minute before channeling mana into a 2nd Order spell called Scales of Time.

From what I could see of the notes on the page, it measured the exact flow of time of any two points within the line of sight of the caster.

Studying the runes revealed that it was similar to Dimension Step, in that line of sight wasn't entirely accurate, and that factors such as affinity and mana invested affected the maximum range.

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"Seven point three percent faster than we're experiencing, though that difference seems to be decaying. In two years, the difference will be less than one percent," Arizar said, pulling out a notebook and jotting down several notes.

"So, Bevel, I bet the interaction is really… you okay, kiddo?" I asked, getting up to step over to where she was hunched over.

"Be fine. Felt the whole place at once," Bevel said, waving a hand in the direction of the canyon-in-a-ditch.

"Felt the… you used your wind sense on the whole valley? Through the borders of the Celestial mana?"

She nodded, immediately grimacing after. "Kinda overwhelming."

I rubbed her back in circles, casting Restore Form before glancing over at the canyon-ditch. And ending up looking at Arizar who was still taking notes, a smile on her lips.

"Yeah, I get that," I said, looking back to the canyon-ditch. "Lot to take in."

"Yep. I… I think I'm good," Bevel said, wriggling her jaw before straightening out. "I think I need to keep trying that. It's… really different, but I think it'll help with my Palace."

"Of course," I said, holding her head as I brought her closer.

Arizar glanced up as we moved to stand over the ditch, her smile dropping almost instantly. "Bevel, are you okay, dear?"

"Bit overwhelmed, Ari," Bevel said, kneeling down next to her. "But figuring it out."

"Well, if you need anything, just let me know," Arizar said, looking over Bevel's shoulder at me, concern clearly etched on her features.

"She's fine," I reassured her. "Physically, anyway."

Arizar nodded, reaching out to pat Bevel's shoulder awkwardly.

Bevel flashed us a smile, then narrowed her eyes, glaring at the canyon-ditch. "Okay, I can do it this time."

She could not, in fact, do it.

After throwing up, Bevel wiped her face clean then returned to her position, slowly working herself into trying again, muttering under her breath.

Neither Arizar or I said anything, simply waiting for her to finish, one way or another.

This time Bevel took a slower approach. I could only barely sense what she was doing, but the air around us started churning softly.

After nearly ten minutes, Bevel let out a long breath. "That… was really fraying weird."

"I can only imagine," I said, squeezing her shoulder. "You got it though?"

She shook her head. "No. I mean, I think I've got it so I can peek inside now. But there's still a lot to figure out. It's pretty awesome magitecture, at least."

"Maybe we do lunch first? Now that you're not going to launch it," Arizar suggested, giving Bevel a faint smile.

"Lunch would be good. Did you bring any smoothie, Papa?" Bevel asked while thumping her head against my leg.

"Yeah, I've got your smoothie," I said, ruffling her hair. I pulled said smoothie out of my ring alongside our more regular lunch then settled down to eat.

After a rather relaxed lunch, Bevel spent another hour studying the Celestial canyon-ditch.

Arizar and I also did our own study, though it was more a combination of studying and instruction as we discussed our own understanding of the forces at work. Honestly, we probably could've stayed there for another week, just poking and prodding at the ripple in reality.

But when Bevel announced that she was done, we tore ourselves away and packed up our discussion alongside the remnants of our lunch.

"I would like to visit again, if the chance becomes available," Arizar said, gaze still lingering on the canyon-ditch.

"Definitely. I already have ideas on how I can improve Ever Expanding Imperium of the Mind. And if we can spend time testing how our spells interact with the border…"

"Then we'll be able to get a more intrinsic understanding of both Worlds and Celestial's tendency to take advantage of the seventh dimension. Of course, if we could set up a proper enchantment, we might even be able to…"

"Set up a functional Celestial mana-tap, one that wouldn't require us sticking our hand through a seven dimensional blender."

"Well, I wouldn't have said, 'blender'," Arizar noted, shaking her head.

"What would you have said?" I asked as we pulled out the gliders.

"A manifold expression of multiple planes of force rotating at excessive speeds to…" Arizar trailed off with a cute little pout at my raised eyebrow. "Fine, I would've probably said blender too. But it's not what I shall write in my notes."

"Fair enough," I said with a soft chuckle even as I shook my head.

Then we were off to the next mana-well, this one back inside the edges of Nexxa's territory. An arcane well.

It was… well, I'd honestly been expecting more. The arcane well was a section of sandy riverbank where everything was… a bit sharper?

That wasn't quite the right word, but it was the best I could do with just one.

Everything about the beach felt just slightly more… real. The water was crisper on the tongue, the sand softer on the toes and the breeze more teasing. It also seemed to keep the bugs from the nearby jungle away, despite how heavily they were buzzing just a few feet from its edge.

"This… would make a great spot for a resort," I said, burrowing my toes in the sand, having abandoned my footwear the second I spotted it. I'd never had the chance to sink my toes in sand before. It was… incredibly strange, but very satisfying. "I think I'm going to have to insist Nexxa build one."

"We could hang a net from those trees and come here whenever we need a break from all the people pouring into Tetherfall," Bevel said, pointing at some trees hanging over the bank. "And you could make a nice deck over the water with your stone dancing, Papa, like the one you made at Esbee's."

"It is a rather idyllic location," Arizar said, turning about. "An unusual manifestation of the Arcane affinity. From my understanding, it is more common for it to shift things in the opposite direction. More than one such magitectural expression has been outright fatal to mundanes or the unprepared ensouled."

"Well, I'm not complaining," I said as I plopped down next to Bevel, still working my toes in the sand.

"Nope. Can we spend the night here?" Bevel asked, plopping down beside me and leaning into my side.

"I'll need to call Tamrie, check to see if she wants us back," I said, earning a raspberry from Bevel. "But if she and Cape Aeternia are okay, yeah, this… this is nice."

Arizar hadn't joined us in lounging on the sand and was instead inspecting the beach up from us. She turned, hands on hips as she looked out over the water, golden hair waving in the gentle breeze. Bevel poked me, then pointed, as if to make sure I'd noticed her. Rolling my eyes, I poked Bevel back.

After a minute of our exchange Bevel settled as Arizar pulled out her grimoire. Then with a pair of spells, one of the trees picked itself out of its spot on the bank before plodding slowly over to the water. As Bevel and I watched, tenuous truce in effect, it seemed to test the depths before finally finding a spot it seemed to find acceptable and settling down, returning to its previous stiffness.

With a nod, Arizar cast another spell, and roots broke free of the water creating a framework several feet above the surface. Finally, she laid her blanket down, stepping back and letting it unfold.

Bevel elbowed me, and I realized I'd been staring with my mouth open, a bit of drool leaking out.

I'd expected Bevel to tease me or start another poking war but instead she whispered, "Can we keep her?"

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