The first thing Sophia saw when she stepped into the party room was a mouse-eared librarian being crushed by Ci'an's hug. Marcie didn't seem to mind at all; she was crying and grinning at the same time and her hands were white from the strength she was using as she hugged Ci'an back. Sophia guessed that answered the question about whether or not they were dating; they clearly were, and Marcie followed Ci'an to Mazehold so that she wouldn't have to stay apart from her girlfriend.

It was heartwarming and Sophia found herself smiling at the sight, but it wasn't really her business. She looked away from the happy couple and found that Marcie wasn't the only person who came with Arryn. Ci'an's uncle Los'en leaned on a pile of pillows on one of the cushioned seats, a few feet away from the old merchant. He lifted his teacup towards Sophia. "Get yourself a cup, then come join us. We might as well give those two a bit to catch up, while you tell me what's happening here. Arryn tells me it's not just the Maze?"

Sophia glanced over at Arryn.

The old merchant chuckled. "Go ahead, get a drink. I told him what I know, that your group is looking into the Arena's methods to survive the Maze. He already knew that much, and insisted on accompanying me back here with Marcie. He said something about a dangerous passageway?"

"I'll get them," Dav offered. "Tea or cocoa tonight?"

"Cocoa," Sophia answered easily as she found herself a comfy spot. She was going to want the pickup from the sugar, since she was already tired after the Dyleda matches, even though she'd only been watching. "I thought I told you about that? It's how we got here from the Skylands."

Sophia started describing what they were doing and what they'd found out. It was a lively discussion at first, and it turned out that both Los'en and Arryn had advice about the Maze that wasn't in the papers Registry Master Jessamine, the Shield of the Sun, gave them before they left Casterville. Arryn's implied some things about the Maze that Sophia hadn't expected; he told them to start by trying to figure out what they were supposed to do as they went through the Maze. It seemed like it wasn't the relatively simple series of fights Sophia expected, but was probably more like a series of scenarios. Many of them were fights, but according to Arryn, killing everything only made it harder. His guess for what the Arena's people knew was simple: he thought they'd figured out some scenarios that no one else had, but only passed them along to their own people.

Los'en's advice sounded like something Arryn would say: he told them to make sure they took a decent amount of infused aurichalc in coin form. He refused to say why, because it was best if they found out on their own. Sophia was pretty confident that he really meant it would be funnier and that he wasn't actually worried about whatever scenario meant they needed the aurichalc, but he refused to elaborate.

That seemed to exhaust the discussion of the Maze, so Sophia filled Arryn and Los'en in on what had happened in the months since they each had to leave. Before she was very far into it, Ci'an and Marcie had disappeared without saying where they were headed. Sophia's guess was that they were in Ci'an's room.

Jax and Xin'ri returned from the Registry while Sophia was still talking about everything they'd learned from the Garden with Bai and Tiwaz's help. Somehow, that turned into introducing Los'en and Jax; while they knew of each other, they'd never met. They seemed to dance around each other a bit, but Los'en was predisposed to like Jax because he was investigating the Arena run by the Broken Blade, while Jax simply appreciated the fact that Los'en was looking out for his niece.

Dav took advantage of the break to start his own description of some details Sophia forgot to mention in her focus on what they'd found out, like their team's name and the fact that they'd made it all the way to level ten and were starting to push their Abilities towards Grand Talents. That triggered an entire round of questions from Los'en and Arryn; for some reason, they seemed to think it was more important than mazestorms, the Garden, or even the Mirrors. Sophia was a little annoyed at that, but it did give them a good chance to lay out what they were trying to reach.

No one mentioned either Taika or Cliff, and it didn't seem to occur to either Arryn or Los'en to ask about Taika; neither one really knew about Cliff. Sophia didn't know what Cliff wanted for certain, but she thought he was trying to be able to project his monsters without depending on Sophia's mana and control. He wanted to be more like the dungeon he'd once been. Sophia couldn't blame him for that at all, and if he succeeded it would be a huge benefit to their group. So far, his biggest successes were in summoning more varied groups of things, but he seemed pleased with his progress.

Taika was headed in a completely different direction; unfortunately, that direction all too often seemed to be backwards. He was trying to actively combine his Psychic Bulwark defenses with his illusions, so that he could manage true mental illusions. It wasn't working well at all; the best he'd managed was making his illusions solid by combining them with his temporary psychic shields, and that simply annoyed him. Sophia had suggested that he might try a different combination, where visual illusions could be triggered or altered by others, but Taika didn't like the suggestion even though he was sort of able to get it to work.

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He was the only one who didn't seem to be getting anywhere at all, or at least not anywhere he wanted to go. Sophia was worried that he might need to somehow connect in to Cliff's Abilities; after all, Cliff was sort of using one of Sophia's Abilities, and the Grand Talent he wanted had to do with their link. Taika didn't like the suggestion and had so far refused to even try, but Sophia had the feeling he was going to change his mind soon enough.

Jax spoke up, but all he said was that he was already third upgrade; he was one of their guides for what to do, along with Bai and Sweetwater. Sophia had mentioned them earlier, so the only real questions they got were about what he'd told them. Jax waved that off and told the duo to wait until everyone talked about their plans.

Xin'ri's desired Great Talent was the most straightforward. She wanted to keep the general idea of her current Sphere, but stretch it so that she could use or enhance any item she'd made or modified, no matter who was holding or wearing it. She was making good progress so far, and could activate items for her teammates, something she'd never been able to do in the past. She still had trouble with control and the mana costs were horrible, but it was a good proof of concept. Arryn had a few suggestions of things to try to reduce the mana cost, but he told her that it was going to be a choice; distance meant less effect or higher mana cost, so if all she was seeing was a high mana cost, she was already doing something right.

Ci'an wasn't there, but her desired Great Talent was easy enough to describe; she wanted her owl form to be more varied, with the ability to fight as well as fly and maybe even use her gaze attacks with her talons as well. It wasn't the most common progression for a Night Owl, but every Grand Talent was at least somewhat personal. Los'en seemed a little troubled by her choice of direction, but he didn't want to explain his concerns to anyone else until he talked to his niece first.

Dav's was also fairly simple to explain, even though its overall effects were possibly the most varied of them all. He wanted to be able to Call anything, or at least anything magical, and take on its aspects. Los'en immediately asked about what he'd do if he wasn't surrounded by magic, and Dav clarified: he didn't want to lose the specific Calls he already had; they were too useful. He wanted to add new ones, and he'd already found out that it was a very useful way to deal with certain magical attacks, though he had to be careful that he didn't try to Call anything too large.

This time, Los'en had a lot to say. His ability to turn into different elements was similar enough to Dav's Call that he was able to list out a lot of different possible pitfalls. The one that worried Sophia the most was that it was apparently far easier to lose Abilities than they'd thought; that happened to Los'en. Before he reached the third upgrade, he didn't require an outside source to trigger an elemental transformation. He only had two, but he could manage them on his own.

His advice to Dav was to keep using his current Calls and make sure they were well cemented in the way he thought about his Ability; if possible, Dav should try to combine Calling something else with one of his current Calls. Dav wasn't sure how to do that, but Sophia suggested his Reflection Call; if he could Call something into his reflection and also Call something himself, that would be best, but even if all he did was learn to copy something with his reflection, it would be better than losing his current Calls.

Dav wasn't as sure about that. He didn't want to lose his ability to duplicate himself, either.

That made it time for Sophia to talk about herself, since she was the only person left. It was a bit uncomfortable to have the spotlight, but maybe they'd have a good idea for her. She was trying to push her Grand Talent away from feathers and towards magic. She liked using her aura for things, but having to use feathers within her aura felt limiting; she wanted to simply affect her environment directly with her aura, the way the Hungering Spark did with its Domain.

"You'll never get away from feathers. They're your Signature. You need to take a different perspective if you want to change your signature." Arryn paused and seemed to examine the ceiling for inspiration. "Tell me, what does magic look like to you?"

Sophia didn't know where he was going, but it sounded like he had an idea. "Colorful and translucent … it changes color depending on what its Affinity is and what it's doing; pure arcane magic ripples through the rainbow and beyond. You can see past it if it's just mana, essence tends to be a lot more solid." Sophia paused, then added what she'd just realized. "I've only been playing with mana, haven't I? None of my Abilities here even touch on essence."

Arryn tilted his head. "Well, then, your Signature. Is it feather or plume? You usually say feather, but I think I've heard you say plume."

Sophia had to check that one; she used them interchangeably. "Plume."

Arryn nodded with a smile. "And what's the difference between them?"

"Uh." Sophia wasn't really entirely sure. "A plume can be a feather but it can also be a group of feathers?"

Arryn's grin widened. "True, but you almost always work with spread out individual feathers, don't you? That means you've been pushing plume in that direction; it might eventually become feather instead of plume if you keep that up. Pay attention to even small differences like that. Feather can mean feathers, but it can also mean a feathered pattern, where the edges are wispy and indistinct. Plumes can be a spray of feathers, but it can also be a spreading spray of gas or liquid. Most often, that means it's mixing into something else and that's how it spreads and affects that something. I think that might be a useful way to think about your Signature; try visualizing it as a colorful plume of mana instead of a literal feather."

Sophia's mouth dropped open. "You can use puns to reach the third upgrade?"

"You can use anything that works for you," Arryn answered with a laugh. "It doesn't have to make sense to someone else; it only has to work for you."

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