We get back to the Nefern guest house and settle in around a table where Belladonna splits the treasure for us, making sure everyone gets a fair share. She apparently has skills to tell how much stuff is worth and makes sure people who don't get items get more coins to compensate. I can almost do that myself, but she probably is using something like Crafting (Appraisal) than measuring how much essence is in something.

Nobody wants the whip, so she gives it to Basalt to use to summon a dwarf. Nefern has neither an adventuring shop nor a spawner, so they'll be compensated the marginal value of a Basic artifact nobody wants.

I didn't wind up unlocking the skill Belladonna was trying to show us, but I did get a related one for the soul. I will need to come back and try to absorb the concept of secrecy into my feet next time.

Well, I still managed to unlock two skills in one day, one for keeping secrets and one for finding them. Dungeons are good for attaining insights. But Enhanced Feet skills also count for travel with a vehicle, so I want to focus on learning some more of them. [Fast Travel] has been a small but non-negligible increase to flight speed when taking a route I've gone before. I draw paths in my soul and Mapping Step is having trouble mapping the air unless I'm way too close to something. I need to work on that too.

Colt Nefern is never being allowed to fly my boat again.

"Whee!" Colt exclaims as we stutter across the fields at 90% speed reduction, dipping dangerously low.

"Okay, let me have the tiller back," I say, grabbing it and pulling it up so that we don't hit the trees ahead of us.

"Right, yeah!" Colt exclaims, 'helping' pull up a little too far.

"Colt, let go of the tiller!"

"But I want to fly! I'll get a hang of it soon!"

"You sound like a twelve-year-old," I grumble.

"And you look like a nine-year-old!" Colt retorts.

"Boys," Jade says firmly. "I want to not crash here."

"Why did we have to leave all the adults behind?" Rowan complains.

"I'm an adult!" Anise protests.

"Basalt wanted to finish the statues," I say. "And Belladonna wanted to play bait."

"Yes, there are good, logical reasons for it," Rowan says with a sigh. "Please don't crash us, Colt. Drake's not going to let you pilot his skyboat again if you're a pain about it."

The thought of consequences makes Colt calm down and start behaving himself.

We get back to Corwen safely and land the skyboat in the village green. We've barely touched down before the twins are all over us begging for stories.

Aunt Hazel is right behind him. "Willow! Griffin! Give them some space. I'm sure they've got plenty of stories to tell you later over dinner in the Hearth or over cards in the guest house."

The pair of excitable almost-eight-year-olds go back over to stand next to my sister and that white-haired kid from Gleam.

Everyone in the skyboat gets out, stretching after mostly sitting for hours. Although there's room enough in the boat to stand up, we're not getting nearly as much exercise as when we were walking across half the domain.

"So this is Corwen?" Colt says, hopping out. "Looks a lot like Nefern. Green guest house, orange workshop, azure schooo— aaaah! What is that thing!?"

A big black devil-goat stands casually in the shadows behind the school, chewing on something. Its fiery red eyes fixate on the loud human for a moment before it looks away in disinterest.

"Oh, that's just Fluffles," I say. "Nefern keeps chickens, Corwen keeps goats."

"Our chickens don't have burning red eyes!" Colt exclaims.

Anise laughs. "Just think of it as [Fear Resistance] training!"

Colt groans and heads for the guest house. "Let's go get dinner, Poppy."

I crawl out of bed at green, never quite shaking the feeling of movement, and head over to the guest house to see how my friends are settling in.

Colt comes up to me with floppy pointed ears as big as the rest of his head, his aura seething with irritation.

"Where did those two go!?" he asks. "Your cousins, a boy and girl around Poppy's age. They put something in my food when I wasn't looking and it did this." He lightly tugs on his long ears.

"Will my ears go back to normal?" Colt asks.

"Yeah, you'll be fine," I say. "It's only temporary. Sorry about my cousins."

Colt rubs his ears. "They feel so weird. I can hear everything. That's kind of annoying too."

We head out of the guest house to look for the twins and find them in the school house giggling along with Colt's sister. The silent white-haired boy sits in the corner with a book, but he has lowered it to watch them.

"There you are, you little tricksters," Colt says, waving a finger. "Poppy, did you put them up to this?"

In lieu of an answer, Poppy melts into a fit of giggles.

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"Well, I'm glad someone is having fun here," I say. "And where exactly did you find the potion ingredients?"

Aunt Hazel chooses that moment to show up. "What's going on here? Did I hear something about potion ingredients?" Her eyes fall upon Colt.

"It was those two!" Colt points accusingly. "I was getting breakfast in the guest house and the girl distracted me with chatter and the boy snuck something into my porridge."

Aunt Hazel turns her gaze to the twins, narrowing her eyes at them. "Well? What do you have to say for yourselves?"

"I didn't put anything in his porridge," Willow says hurriedly.

"I didn't make a potion," Griffin says.

"I definitely didn't sneak into the ingredient storage," Willow adds.

"I certainly didn't come up with an idea like that," Griffin puts in.

Aunt Hazel's glare continues unabated. "You aren't helping your case, kids. Extra chores for you both, and I want you to go collect more ingredients next time you're taken outside. The wood ear mushrooms aren't that rare, but the moss to make them do anything is."

Poppy, much to her chagrin, is not yet able to turn invisible, and she doesn't escape Aunt Hazel's attention no matter how much she's trying to distance herself from the twins or pretend that she wasn't just giggling like a schoolgirl.

"You're not one of mine, but if you want to join the class, I'd like you to write essays on everything you learned in your home village," Aunt Hazel says.

"Does Colt have to also?" Poppy asks.

"I will," Colt says. "If I don't, I will hear no end of whining from her. Even if she is a little twerp."

Colt's ears shrink back to normal, and Aunt Hazel directs the twins to clean and organize the school house. Willow has a tendency to leave the books she's reading where she can find them. Which means every book a clever almost-eight-year-old might want to read is somewhere other than where it's supposed to be.

While I'd like to swoop over to Flux as soon as possible, waiting until we know the Honest Order of Aethernauts isn't going to shoot us out of the sky might be best. It's not like we don't have other pressing matters here. Like what really happened to Crow Talgarth and what the Halkyns are up to.

First, though, we'll need to find a way to remove these thief markers. We won't be heading off again just yet, remaining in the village for now in case the HOA makes a move. Aunt Savannah and Uncle Winter should have no trouble holding off any interlopers short of Legendary rank.

And the twins will probably whine for months if I don't take them flying for their naming day like I promised.

"Okay, you said I could come along if I teach you [Wind Detection]?" Colt says. "It's not a very fun skill, just useful sometimes. I had to unlock it to get past the stupid butterfly puzzle. The funnest part was having to climb up to a weather vane for it."

I have tried and failed to unlock a number of skills. I don't feel the need to dwell on my failures, as in most cases they're just a lack of persistence and insight. Enhancement skills are harder to unlock than general skills, and I suspect magic skills will be even harder yet. They're essentially just exercise for the spirit, though. It's just that the spirit is comprised of concepts and symbolism rather than muscle and bone.

Following Colt's suggestions, I go through symbolic objects. I start off by drawing up a bad mock up of a meteorological chart. Like something you'd imagine a newscaster standing in front of while pointing out a cold front.

When I was in fourth grade, the local weather man visited my school. We were all very impressed to meet a real celebrity from the TV. He had us all make weather-related drawings and showed the best of them on the news that evening. Mine was not chosen, and here I am, nine years old again and my skill with a crayon has reached about the same point.

You have crafted a Poor artwork Skills increased: Recollection (Flashback), Crafting (Sketching)

Ignoring the system's criticism, I move on to crafting the next object from the assorted Basic-rank scrap materials I'm allowed to practice with. I tie a scrap of cloth to a stick as a makeshift flag. It might not hold up to a strong gust.

I head out the back door of the workshop, and a breeze immediately picks up my crappy banner. I go over to my oak tree sapling and plant the flag in the ground nearby. Taking a deep breath of the chill air, not quite spring yet, I take a seat in the damp grass next to the sapling.

"One day, we're going to fly," I tell it.

I don't know how the tree feels about the prospect of flying, but it has been thriving under the protection of an Epic Druid. Nonetheless, I stay here for a bit and feel the flow of aether and vis around me while watching the sky.

Skill increased: Crafting (Tailoring)

Next up, there's some wind chimes hanging outside the school, so I meditate there for a bit to absorb their concepts. At least, up until Griffin pokes me in the back of the knees.

"Hey!" I exclaim. "I was meditating! Aren't you supposed to be cleaning?"

I shoo him off and just move on to the next spot. I suppose I'd gotten what I needed from the chimes anyway. I'll come back to them if the weather vane doesn't work.

I head over to the barn, giving Fluffles a pat along the way before bringing out my grappling hook. I get it to catch on the edge of the roof after a few tries, and I climb up to the top of the barn. Hopefully a devil-goat doesn't decide to chew on my rope.

Skills increased: Mechanics (Rope Use), Athletics (Climbing)

A weather vane shaped like a rooster perches upon the peak of the roof. Once I've settled in, Colt follows me up and takes a seat across from me.

"Hah… a level in Athletics (Climbing), just like that," Colt says.

"You just have to visit more new places," I say.

"Yeah, this is my first time really getting far from Nefern."

"I'm surprised you got past the terrifying livestock."

Colt snorts softly. "Yeah, yeah. You Corwens are crazy but I have more Discipline than that. Alright, let me explain how I did this…"

As I listen to his voice, I focus on the weather vane, the wind, the sky, the aether, and breathe deeply. I closely examine the metal rooster in front of me to discern what concepts it's made of.

We all have inherent bonuses to air abilities due to having 'Tempest' in our names, plus many of us are named after birds. Colt is named after a horse and not a bird, but that still symbolizes movement and freedom if not specifically flight. And I'm named after a duck, which also speaks to adaptability.

I can adapt. And I want nothing more than to fly. I direct the concept of wind into my eyes and ears, and watch the essence in the metal rooster as it flares like lightning.

Skills increased: Enhanced Soul (Ghost Eyes, Fractal Consciousness, Mystic Inspiration), Enhanced Senses (Celestial Inspiration) Skill acquired: Enhanced Senses (Wind Detection) Description: The ability to discern the speed and direction of the wind.

As soon as the skill unlocks, a new icon appears on my HUD next to the compass.

"10 kph from the south-southwest," I say. "I got it!"

And the fractal I had watching our auras (for [Psychic Child] bonuses) notes a flash of violet experience that indicates Colt probably just got a level of Tending (Teaching). I'm not sure that I want to start seeing other people's skillups. My own are intrusive enough sometimes. Oh well. I'm starting to understand about how Aunt Savannah hears too well. Even a novice level of [Wind Detection] is apparently enough to pick out the one real butterfly in a swarm of fakes.

"Nice!" Colt says. "That's faster than I got it."

The day has slipped away while I've been busy working on this, and the skymotes are starting to turn red. We climb back down to get dinner.

I think I'm going to need to focus on skills related to aether sailing. I also put sorting out my toolkit on my to-do list. I'll need to make a list of skills I want to try.

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