The next morning, I introduce Kestrel to my friends who are currently staying in the guest house: Jade, Rowan, Colt, and Poppy. I let them know we'll be traveling soon.

As we're chatting and sharing stories of our adventures, I spot the white-haired boy from Gleam out of the corner of my eye. Bucky doesn't speak, but I've gotten so used to reading people's auras that that hardly hampers me in understanding him.

His aura is full of yearning. He wants to fly. It's too dangerous for him to fly but he wants to fly. It sucks that he and his mom are basically prisoners here. They wanted to arrest a 6-year-old boy for ringing a bell. Someday I'll fly to Gleam and find out what their deal is. But that's not going to be today.

A few days after the twins' naming day, we get the Celestial Duck ready for another trip. The kids are staying behind, so I'll be heading out with Anise and Rowan as usual, plus Jade, the Nefern kids, and Grandma Kestrel. Aunt Hazel, as always, ensures that we are in no danger of starvation by packing way too much food and supplies.

"Do you know a lot about skyships, Grandma?" I ask.

"I know how to fly one, at any rate," Grandma Kestrel says. "As to how one works? Not really. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with once you learn. No, I'm the sort of Wizard who just uses magic items other people made rather than making them myself."

Once we're all settled, Grandma Kestrel touches the railing and sends a pulse of energy into the sigils. As they light up, she gives Anise some pointers in Wizardry. I listen in and make mental notes, but I don't really have the context to do anything with that information yet.

I take the tiller and bring us into the air, and once we've cleared the village walls, I point us on a heading north-northwest toward the Grubwick cave entrance. Although faster than walking, it's still a flight of a few hours. Flying is great, but I'm itching to increase my control rating so I can fly faster than a produce cart. A chilly breeze cuts through the misty morning air, but the skies above us are clear today.

I land the skyboat in a clear spot past Skullburn Bridge near the cave entrance. We disembark, and Grandma Kestrel stays behind to watch the boat while the rest of us head down to visit the goblins.

Skills increased: Survival (Sense of Direction), Mechanics (Piloting), Enhanced Feet (Fast Travel)

My newer friends haven't been down this way before, and they stare in awe at the exotic flora of the In-Between as we make our way down the tunnel to the first layer. Grubwick lies on the far side of a cavern large enough that it might as well be an open meadow, allowing a good view of the walled village before we reach the gates.

Once inside, an ancient female goblin emerges from the Hearth to greet us. I've never been inside, of course, but Grubwick's Hearth contains warrens rather than a tower, making me wonder how many goblins are living and working beneath my feet.

After the formalities of exchanging introductions, I explain the situation and describe the marker that the captain's cursed lockbox placed upon our auras.

Around Griza's neck hangs a gruesome necklace with various dangling monster body parts. She adjusts it to bring forward a large, green, slitted eyeball and points it toward us. She mumbles an Incantation in a language I'm not familiar with.

"Hmm, yes, there is indeed a curse set upon you," Griza says.

"How can you tell?" I ask. "What's that skill you used?"

"Hmph. You are too tall now to bonk you with my staff. A Witch knows her trade."

"Sorry, I'm not questioning your competence," I say. "Just curious about your skills. You don't have access to the ones I'm using so I was wondering what other methods there were. I'm guessing that was an Invocation involving a monster eye?"

"Do you want me to lift this curse or not?" Griza says. "If you wish to learn Invocations, come back when you reach Elite."

I mime a lip-zipping gesture and sit back down. (She has probably never seen a zipper, though.)

"Milo and Basalt were also cursed, but they're still in Hebron," Anise says.

"Then we shall go to Hebron," Griza says.

"You want to go yourself?" Anise asks, looking at the goblin's withered, creaky body.

Griza chuckles. "I am beyond the lifespan of a normal goblin, but I am an Epic. Do not concern yourself with me."

"What about defending your village?" Anise asks.

"It is far from swarm season, and our enemies have been crushed or cowed. And Grubwick has another Epic now, who has set up defenses far better than I could."

"Hi Drake!" calls out a female goblin, giving a wave as she approaches.

Klog Grubwick has not been slacking. She was a Heroic-ranked [Daring Inventor] the last time I saw her, and now she has taken her next steps on the path to immortality.

"Klog?" I say. "I'm kind of scared to ask what sort of invention put you at Epic."

Klog laughs. "Yes, come see! I'll show you!"

Klog holds up a gray cave gourd that has been hollowed out and plugged. We follow her over to the banks of the carp river to see her demonstrate her latest invention. We all stand back. Way back.

Klog hurls the gourd into the river. Nothing happens for a moment, and then there's a fiery explosion. Fish bits rain upon the banks.

"Boom!" Klog exclaims, clapping her hands together and giggling.

"… what's your new class again?" Anise asks.

"[Dauntless Innovator]," Klog says. "Which is just the class I had but with stronger words!"

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"How many Basic-rank goblins got blown up in the process of developing your boom gourds?" I wonder.

"Ehhhh, a few," Klog admits with a shrug.

Griza heads back into the warrens to gather some supplies of her own before meeting us at the gates. She leans heavily upon a long, gnarled staff with three different types of mushrooms growing out of the end, and a large crude pack on her back makes her resemble a snail.

"That looks heavy," Anise says, reaching over to her. "Let me give you a hand with that."

"No," Griza says sharply. "Keep your hands to yourself."

Anise steps back and holds up her hands innocently. "Okay, okay, sorry."

Griza follows along after us as we head back to the Topside. "I am interested in seeing this vessel of yours. A journey of days traversing the Underswamps reduced to a few hours flying."

When we emerge from the tunnel, she pauses for a moment to take in the sky, her old yellow eyes gazing upon the indigo Great Orb and Zenith's shining yellow disc amid the scattered green and golden skymotes.

Grandma Kestrel has kept the ship on, and waves to the goblin [Elder Witch] when we return. After another quick round of introductions, we settle back in to the boat and return to the skies. Griza makes no comment aloud about her first experience with flying, but her aura still ripples with appreciation.

While my [Sense of Direction] skill has been improving, the addition of a really obvious landmark has made finding the Splott cave entrance much easier. I don't bring us under the huge oak tree, though. As we get closer, I turn the skyboat to the left and bring us in to park at the Nefern docking tower. There aren't any other ships here at the moment.

Colt and Poppy spend the night in the Hearth while the rest of us settle into the guest house. We're informed that Uncle Falcon and his party have relocated to Amroth, putting a damper on Grandma Kestrel's plans to say hi for now.

Come morning, we set out on foot to the cave entrance beneath the big tree, leaving the skyboat in the relative safety of Nefern where the docking tower's enchantments will prevent anyone from making off with it.

"I'll have to catch up with Falcon later," Grandma Kestrel says. "You said Hawk was exploring the second layer? I'm curious to see this dungeon you found."

I nod. "Last I knew, he and his party were still down there."

We descend into the In-Between again and traverse the tunnel into the vast Splott Cave. It opens before us, giving a clear view of the big underground lake and little island with the goblin village. I feel like I'm playing telepathic tour guide, sending a steady flow of information about the area to the companions who haven't been down here yet while they admire the scenery. The ones who are familiar with the Underswamps keep alert for wandering monsters.

Splott isn't much further from the cave entrance than Grubwick is, but Hebron is a longer trek through the Underswamps. Although we've made the journey many times by this point, it's never entirely safe. With an extra Heroic and Epic accompanying us, though, we're not very concerned about the local dangers.

A Heroic swamp monster blocks the tunnels leading to Hebron, and I quietly warn my companions as soon as I detect the creature. Its foul scent of rot punctuates the air before we can even see its yellow fungal "skin" or tangled lichen "hair", and it pins its yellow-green gaze upon us for only a moment before Griza raises her staff and begins to chant.

"Mushrooms to mushrooms, mud to mud," Griza intones, waving her staff at the swamp monster.

The glowing eyes wink out as the monster crumbles, dissolving into a pile of non-mobile terrain.

"Man, I'm so glad you're on our side," Jade comments.

We reach the spiral staircase leading down into Hebron without further incident, and Nessie the Giant Cave Newt welcomes us in.

Uncle Hawk isn't in Hebron when we arrive, but Basalt and Milo are still here. I introduce them to Grandma Kestrel. Milo has finished copying the sigils on the lockbox and Hebron destroyed the evidence. Kestrel is impressed that he went to the trouble of copying them all down. And that a goblin has good handwriting, reincarnator or no.

"I finished another statue," Basalt says. "Very convenient that the system told me it was done after I looked at it and thought it was done."

"The system is basically just a soul computer that tells us things we already know in a clearer way," I say. "The system didn't decide it was done. The system gauged you to have decided it was done. Because it can read our thoughts, and interprets them accordingly. It's perfectly capable of detecting the 'I think I'm done' thought."

Incidentally, I'm pretty sure this is also why I receive kill notifications. Checking with my friends, only the other reincarnators get them. We have [Aura Sight]. We can tell that something is dead. Realizing that, I decide to pass on those notifications to my party as well. There's a lot of useful information that a party can benefit from by having a psychic on board, even one who has specialized in it less than I have.

Before actually spawning the next dwarf, we have a meeting to discuss what to do with the grapes. Milo and Basalt both have their own opinions, and Aunt Rosemary and Grandma Kestrel have different expertise to offer. Hearthkeeper Garnet also has a few thoughts to add, but is largely concerned with keeping the Hearth and leaving dealing with the logistics of trade to the traders.

Adjusting the grapes to grow at a more natural rate makes it much cheaper to have a lot of them. We could have one vine that regrows every day, or we can have an entire vineyard. Hebron has a single fast-growing vine, but as we expand grape production, the new vines will be more normal. Plants that grow slower build up more essence. Fast-growing plants are good for purely mundane purposes of not starving, but the magical properties are very low. If you have a plant that produces one special fruit every century, that fruit will be extremely magically potent.

Skills increased: Discipline (Long-Term Planning), Knowledge (Botany)

"My grandbaby subjugated his first dungeon at the tender age of 9," Kestrel says with a grin.

"I was still 8, actually. And anyway, it was not that difficult and I didn't even get Elite rank from it or anything. We landed here because the layout of the Underswamps shifted while I was taking a vacation to a hot spring. I followed the flow of aether and found a lost dungeon that was so lost it was barely an empty maze anymore. There were no traps, no monsters, and it gave us free food and water. It gave us the key to the dungeon just for walking up to the door. The welcome mat may as well have read 'PLEASE COME SUBJUGATE ME, I HAVE GRAPES! I will be a good vassal but orcs hate wine!'"

Grandma Kestrel laughs. "You know there's some who say dungeon subjugation is inherently immoral?"

"That sounds like someone who really doesn't understand what dungeons are."

"You probably know better than most. There's a lot of weird ideas out in the skymotes. Some people also think reincarnation is inherently immoral. Or they might be okay with the dwarves, but they'd call you and Milo baby-killers."

"Well, they're not completely wrong," I say with a shrug. "I can't be whatever Drake might have been without having ghosts shoved in his head. But I have [Fractal Consciousness] and can be Drake and not the ghosts."

"But it's not like that ghost chose to be put into the body of a newborn," Kestrel says.

"Why do you say that?" I ask.

"The reincarnators I've asked insisted that they didn't choose to be reincarnated. Did you?"

"While I do not directly remember having done so, I am also quite certain that I did."

"How can you be sure if you don't remember?" Kestrel wonders.

"Do you know about grafting?" I ask. "Like, with plants?"

"Yeah, Corwen's orchards have grafted trees," Kestrel says. "Extra strong root stock supporting high-yield fruit stock. You can tell every tree is two plants if you have the appropriate skills."

"That's essentially how reincarnation works," I say. "In this case, Drake is the fruit stock and Alex is the root stock. I have a skill that literally lets me see this, [Astral Vision]. I can see people's soul trees."

"Huh, cool."

"Anyway, I would be able to tell if anything bad or forceful had gone on during that process. It would have been as easy as seeing the horrible mess Estelle's astral tree looks like. My soul tree looks like a graft. Basalt's looks like a colony tree with suckers. Estelle's looks like a grafted tree that was uprooted and torn away from its root stock."

"Thank you for that deeply unsettling mental imagery."

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