Sitting beneath the stars, on a sandy beach over a river so clear I could pick out every single stone even without Eagle Eyes, Bevel successfully cast Memory Palace.

I'd barely finished my call with Tamrie when it happened. To my surprise, despite not being in my own Palace, I felt her presence immediately.

"The Front?" I muttered as Arizar and I both froze, turning towards Bevel.

"I… believe she did more than cast the spell successfully. Though I'm not certain what…" Arizar said haltingly, her normally confident voice dropping off at the end.

"Bevel?" I asked, folding the mirror away and storing it before pushing to my feet.

She didn't respond, head slumped to the side as though she'd fallen asleep sitting up. Gently, I laid her back, using one of the many cushions that Arizar normally had scattered around the interior of her pavilion as a pillow.

I heard the sound of a chime as I did. Then a shout. Bevel's voice. Except it was distant and echoing, and entirely in my head.

"Do you hear that?" I asked Arizar.

"I do. It would seem she's eager to see your Palace," Arizar said, a soft smile on her face as she kneeled down, bowing her head forward over her folded hands. "I shall see you inside."

I stared at each of them for a second before rubbing my forehead. After a glance at the closed mirror, and a thought to Tamrie, I double checked the wards we'd set up, and only then did I lay down near Bevel.

With the soft sound of the river beneath us, I entered my own Memory Palace.

Sure enough, the second I was inside, I heard the doorbell. And Bevel shouting, "I did it, Papa! I did it. I'm within the Winds Within! Let me in yours!"

Making my way outside, I walked towards her doorway. It was less a door, and more a swirling portal of wind. One that was entirely transparent, allowing me to see Bevel waving with exaggerated motions as I got close.

I hadn't even reached the door when Bevel suddenly stumbled forward, emerging inside and falling to her knees.

"Oof," she said, shaking her head before pushing to her feet.

"Congrats. Welcome to my shop," I said, waving back to the yard.

"Knots yes!" Bevel exclaimed, grabbing my hand and tugging me towards the yard.

"One second. I should probably let Arizar in too," I said, already three steps towards the yard.

"Oh! Right. Yes!" Bevel agreed, spinning on her heel and moving towards Arizar's door.

Maybe it was how much I trusted Bevel but she had no trouble opening Arizar's door and escorting her in.

Then with Arizar's hand in her right and mine in her left, Bevel started pulling us towards the shop.

She stopped regularly, letting out gasps of excitement at every little thing. Dune buggy. Gasp. Old 'vette? 'Nother gasp. The glowing neon sign of the wolf. One hundred percent gasp.

I'd told her about all of it, of course, but it seemed seeing it in person just hit different. Or maybe it was because she was seeing things I'd only ever described to her before.

After exclaiming over everything in the yard, Bevel moved on to the shop itself. As we went inside, I couldn't help but notice that the bathroom door was hanging open.

I narrowed my eyes at that.

Even after I'd pulled it open and faced the memories I'd locked inside, it had mostly stayed closed. I took a half-step over to close it again but a tug from Bevel towards the workbench where I'd left my latest designs for spatial storage stopped me.

We spent longer than I'd planned inside. Which would've been true even if we'd only spent a few minutes inside, since I hadn't been planning to spend any at all.

A tour of the whole place was only the start of everything Bevel insisted on. Including trying out each of the sodas I had in the little mini-fridge.

"Hmm. Not bad," Bevel said, sipping carefully at the can before swirling it around in her mouth like she was tasting wine. "Not as good as Esbee's smoothies, but not bad."

"I wouldn't mind the occasional carbonated drink, but otherwise, I agree," I said, taking a sip of my own.

"This is… quite the experience," Arizar said, squinting at the can. "And this is done without any essence material? Truly?"

"It's just little bubbles of air. CO2, from what I read," I said taking another sip and letting the familiar fizzing sensation play over my tongue. "Actually, it would probably be super simple to design a filter that would let us make carbonated drinks. That's what the C stands for, carbon."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Hmm, I'm not familiar with that word. Is it Alvian?" Arizar asked.

"Uh. No. English. That's… well, that's a whole other story. Related to me being reborn," I said, staring down into my drink.

"Papa was born on another world!" Bevel said, grabbing my hand and squeezing it. "How fraying awesome is that?"

"That is… quite awesome indeed," Arizar said, laughing softly before taking another sip. "As is this… Cola?"

"Yeah. Grew up on off-brands," I said with a shrug. "I'll tell you all about it sometime. The other world part, I mean. Most of my other friends already know."

"I… would quite like that," Arizar said. Our eyes met for several seconds, neither of us saying anything, simply sharing a smile. Then she looked away with a blush before turning to Bevel. "Could you not make this with an application of your Winds Within?"

Bevel scrunched up her face, staring at her drink. A second later, it started bubbling, and Bevel clapped her hands.

"Good job, kiddo," I said, ruffling her hair.

"Hey, since we're already here…" Bevel said, glancing between us.

"Yeah?" I asked, taking another sip and deliberately not looking towards Arizar. Needed a moment for my heart to settle.

"You said you could teach us how to make storage vaults! Can we?"

"That is an excellent idea," Arizar said, taking her turn to reach over and ruffle Bevel's hair.

Once we started, time once again kinda slipped away from us. Two relative days later, we emerged. In theory, we'd succeeded. Bevel and I had each managed to construct a basic storage vault. It had barely taken me any time to figure it out, which'd only encouraged Bevel to try even harder.

Once more, Arizar helped guide Bevel on how to reframe an effect that was more in tune with her element. At first, that meant it could only store gases. But from there, Arizar taught us how that could be used as a filter for the overall effects.

It was… some very lateral thinking. And not something I'd encountered in any of the books I'd read.

Halfway through our time inside, while Bevel was experimenting with the third version of her vault, I had asked Arizar about it.

"Father might not have given me much in the way of materials, but he was never stingy with his time," Arizar said, smiling fondly at Bevel. "I've spent more time studying magic with Father in his Palace than I have living in the mortal world."

"That's… so, you're actually closer to seventy?"

"I honestly haven't kept track. Father and I decided it was better not to know," Arizar said, turning to give me a small smile. "That said, I would be surprised if I was any younger."

"Wow. That's… huh. No wonder you have a hard time connecting with most people. Not many would understand what that's like," I said, watching as Bevel cast a weak version of her Boom spell at her vault, only for the whole thing to implode.

"No… but you're starting to, I think," Arizar said, hand on my shoulder. "I am glad we've become friends."

"Yeah, same," I said, angry at the part of myself that felt a surge of bitter disappointment at her choice of words, even as a much larger part felt relief.

I threw myself back into helping Bevel with her vault, and the next day passed quickly. When we emerged we each collapsed into our respective cushions, yet kept talking for another hour before Bevel's snores heralded the end of the night.

The last of the mana wells we were visiting was the Frost Riven keep. There was still one more possible stop, but that would depend on the progress of the Unclean clans.

"Can't believe you've never been here," I said to Bevel as we circled the keep, waiting for the signal to descend.

"Why would I? It's cold," Bevel yelled back, tone serious.

As if she was even touched by the cold anymore.

Receiving the signal to descend, we soon alighted on the high road just to the west of the keep. We were greeted by a Frost Riven I didn't know, who showed us inside. They apologized for the delay, explaining that Vaserra was in the northern Sheepshome.

Bevel only took a few minutes walking about the keep before she was ready to head out.

"Not as cold as I expected," Bevel said, seeming upset about that fact.

"Just cause its an Ice mana well… actually, yeah, I would've expected it to be colder too. Might be cause it's a weaker well," I said, glancing towards Arizar.

"I believe this well is expressing other aspects of the Ice affinity, though what those are is rather… well, subtle, I suppose," Arizar said, giving a slight shrug. "There is certainly a bit of chill, if one lets their shields drop, though I'm certain that's normal for such an elevation."

"High road normally stops it, actually," I said. "Maybe that's all it is," I added, tapping a foot on the ground. "We're on the end of the high road, so maybe it's offsetting the cold?"

"An interesting combination, if so. Retaining access to the mana while not having to live with the deleterious effects of such," Arizar said, looking around at the Frost Riven in their tightly clasped furred clothes. "Well, without the worst of them, anyway."

I nodded while following Bevel out. It was still early enough we had more than enough time to check the next mana well.

And to take the first look at these clans with my own eyes.

There was a voice in the back of my mind telling me I should try to arrange some sort of diplomatic meeting with them. Yet that voice was balanced by the fact I didn't want to serve myself up to them on a platter.

Either way, none of their tier-4's were capable of rapid flight. One of the limitations of being bonded instead of ensouled.

Unless they were bonded to a giant eagle of course.

Which we got a very physical reminder of as a trio of giant eagles started shadowing us. They didn't strike, but they refused to leave when we changed direction.

"Those are the eagles I smacked around," Bevel said, pointing at them.

"Well, they're not attacking. Let's see what they want," I suggested.

Bevel scrunched up her face for a second before nodding.

So, we made our way towards a nearby mountain peak. One that seemed vaguely familiar. I chuckled softly when I looked west and recognized the rest of the peaks from Conflict's trials.

Not long after we'd landed the trio of eagles approached. They circled around several times, as if waiting, preparing to dodge any attacks we might throw their way.

Finally, after a full ten minutes where the closest we came to attacking them was Bevel spinning up a ball of razor sharp wind to carve a very rough image of her, Arizar and me into the stone, they decided it was safe enough to descend.

A thin man with a headdress of feathers stood atop the back of the central eagle. As they drew close, it decided to let out an ear rattling shriek. Thankfully, we all had shields that protected us from such.

After one last circle around the peak, the lead eagle split off and landed on the far side, the thin man leaping off with a lot of flair, but not a lot of grace, feathers fluttering everywhere, some managing to escape during his jump.

He looked a little like the bird he rode, with narrow angular features, a long nose, and bowed arms and legs. And very focused, very closely placed eyes.

"Who are you, who dare invade skies governed by the Ten Feathers?"

"Hmm, it would appear this one put all his feathers in his headwear," Arizar noted with a hint of amusement. "And left none with which to write himself out of the corner."

The snort I made in response didn't help our guest's composure.

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