It's March 25th, Juniper's naming day and the day after my as-yet-unnamed cousin was born. Willow and Griffin are eager to fly, but I insist on making sure everything's alright first. Juniper, at least, is patient enough to wait for me to double-check the work I'd gotten done last night. The sigil ink is dry now and I'm fairly confident I got it right. Kestrel looked over my work and approved it for a test flight.

Kestrel turns the ship on and I observe the flow of energy through the sigils both with Clairvoyance and [Vehicle Diagnosis]. It seems to be within reasonable tolerances, but we'll see how it works in practice.

I take the boat into the air and guide it on a short test flight from one side of the village to the other, while maintaining a steady altitude of one meter. I am not the sort of person who refers to a trip to another planet as a short test flight.

"Alright, so far so good," I say once I've set down the skyboat in the green behind the workshop. "Took off and landed correctly and at no point did it burst into flames."

"You kids can go up so long as your Grandma Kestrel is ready to catch you if you fall," Aunt Hazel says.

"I'm sure it'll be fine," Anise says.

"Yay!" scream Willow and Griffin in unison.

"It's Juniper's naming day, not yours, you know," Kestrel says teasingly. "We don't have to take you along at all."

"And your grandmother might be taken in by twin pouting but I won't be," Aunt Hazel says.

The twins settle down, and once all three of the eight-year-olds are seated, I take the skyboat into the air.

We take the kids on a short flight. We don't fly far from the walls, as I'm still not fully confident with my low-level work, but they're just as excited to circle around the village a few times.

"Energy flow is a little inefficient but workable," Kestrel says. "You'll have Heroics on board with plenty of vis to throw around, so that shouldn't be a problem, though."

I spend the next week making absolutely sure I have all the sigils on the boat written down for reference. I carefully copy them all out with a calligraphy brush and normal ink, twice. It's a little tedious, but good practice. I also make several detailed sketches of the boat.

Skills increased: Crafting (Drafting, Calligraphy), Language (Mystic Sigils), Maintenance (Scribing), Enhanced Hands (Labor of Love)

Come the first of April, I will finally learn the name of the cousin who was born a week ago but we had to keep calling "the boy". We don't even know what his name will be. Corwen will bestow it upon him, and the systems in our heads will inform us. I've been trying to guess what bird or tree this one will get named after.

The week-old baby already has a full mop of black hair. He's a bit grumpy about having been roused from a good nap in order to be named. (Babies are easy to read. They don't have complicated thoughts or emotions. Unless, of course, they're reincarnators, and he's definitely not.)

Fox has joined faction Corwen Hearth.

Fox, huh? Not a bird or tree this time. Each of us gathered in the hearth comes by, touches him and speaks the name. With each repetition of "Fox" spoken, the naming concept in the child's aura strengthens. The flow of aspects is beautiful to watch.

You have uncovered insights into the nature of names. Skill increased: Clairvoyance (Naming, Aura Sight, Empathy), Enhanced Soul (Mystic Inspiration)

"Ah, little Fox, I wonder what your class might be one day," Kestrel says.

My concept of "Fox" is a little different from everyone else here. I know of many fictional and real people from Earth who happened to be named Fox, plus a few cartoons, and I can't help but think of them when I say the name. I have no idea how it will affect him that I was thinking of Mulder, Michael J., and an animated Robin Hood film.

For his part, Fox is grateful for the ceremony to be done so he can go back to his nap.

On April 2nd, we get the skyboat packed and leave Corwen and make for Flux. If Aunt Hazel overpacked for a day trip, she overpacks even more for this.

"We'll be able to buy food in Flux, Hazel…" Kestrel says with a chuckle. "Don't you have a newborn to be looking after?"

Aunt Savannah has some words to say before we leave. "Reincarnator or no, I would not let you do this if you were a girl, even with multiple Heroics as an escort. You are a boy, however, and the Hearth's continuity does not depend upon you." She turns to Meadow. "You, on the other hand…"

"I'm an adult, mom," Meadow says with a sigh. "And I already had one kid. This quest might well give me plenty of experience depending on how it goes."

"And it might also get you killed," Aunt Savannah says. "You might get blasted out of the sky, and I will not be able to protect you."

"Experience never comes without challenge, Savannah," Uncle Falcon says.

"Visiting a new place may just be what my Wanderer class needs, too," Meadow says. "Look, mom. I'm not going to get turned into a mushroom and not smack someone for it."

"You should leave that to your Uncle Hawk," Aunt Savannah says, then sighs and hugs her. "Fine. Be careful, and listen to Drake."

"Why me?" I wonder.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Because your mother, grandmother, and uncle never managed to become responsible adults. And not one of them would have made a cautious test flight before gallivanting off to the next domain."

Anise and Kestrel are wearing identical smirks. Uncle Falcon just laughs boisterously.

To avoid both the storm above the Black Mountain and the potential for trouble in Amroth… what am I saying. To test ourselves against the storm and join the revolution in Amroth, we set off to the north. Fortunate (and experience) favors the bold.

We brave the storm.

My higher bond with the ship has greatly increased my control over it and our flight speed. Finally, we can outpace a produce cart! We might still be overtaken by a casual jogger or mid-level adventurer with [Fast Travel]. But still, we're flying! This is technically a landing boat made for control near land rather than speed. A bigger skyship would be equipped with a few like this.

It's still a joy to fly. [Aether Sailing] requires thinking of my boat an extension of myself. I tilt the sails to catch the aether wind from Tempest to steady our flight. This also has the side effect of drenching us all even worse.

Our first stop is at Talgarth to pick up Rowan. He comes up to the docking tower and hops on board after we've barely paused. I smoothly turn the ship and point us at Nefern next. We'd briefly emerged at the edge of the storm into dry Talgarth, but it's raining over Nefern.

Rowan pushes his wet blond hair out of his face. "Are we actually flying into the storm? Why?!"

"No help for it," I say with a shrug. "It's raining where we want to go. In any case, best to do stress-testing while we're still in walking distance of home. The fresh sigils are holding fine."

"Isn't this just going to damage the ship before we even get going?"

"If we can't take a little rain, we need to know before we get out into open air," I say. "Most of the damage was from things being thrown at us and impacts with trees."

The rain spattering on the deck isn't pooling up. I think some of the sigils are draining it. I don't know what most of the sigils on this boat do and I need to find out. For now, though, we arrive at Nefern in due order.

Colt is standing on the tower in the rain waving at us. "Take me with you! The planting is done and I'm not going to miss out on this if I can help it."

"Does your family know you're here?" Meadow asks.

"Yeah, and that's why my little sister isn't," Colt says. "At least your boat doesn't have anywhere you can hide and stow away on, or she might consider it."

"It does mean we get rained on a lot," Rowan says, getting rained on a lot. "Why don't we at least set up a tent or something?"

"Aerodynamics," I say. "Though we can cheat, with magic."

"Right, speaking of which, Kestrel? Aren't you a wind mage? Couldn't you stop us from getting rained on?"

"Why?" Kestrel says. "It feels wonderful!" She throws her hands to the air, fingers splayed.

A blast of water sprays upon Rowan, drenching him even further. He sighs, and says, "Right. You're Anise's mom. Why is the reincarnator the most normal Corwen?"

"Because I've experienced things other than being a Corwen," I say.

"As annoying as being wet is, at least it's better than being on fire."

"We need to head down to Hebron to pick up Jade," I say. "She wanted to come, too."

Colt shakes his head. "She went to Amroth along with Basalt and the two goblins."

"Okay then, let's keep going," I say. "My control rating increased so we made excellent time even with the rain. Amroth should only be, what, 2 hours now? Less?"

We head out again and reach Amroth before Tiganna hasn't even turned orange yet, and the rain has stopped by the time we get there. Or rather, we finally flew out of the rain. Tiganna is still yellow, and I fly us high enough to look out over the edge at it for a moment before bringing us in. System notifications pop up once I finish pulling into the docking tower.

Skills increased: Enhanced Soul (Aether Sailing), Mechanics (Piloting), Enhanced Senses (Vehicle Diagnosis, Wind Detection), Survival (Sense of Direction)

In addition to the skydocks facing out off the domain, Amroth also has a docking tower pointed toward the interior like most other villages do. Even a small village like Nefern has one. Intra-domain air travel over Tempest is infrequent but not unusual, after all. As we disembark, I keep an eye (or [Ghost Eye]) out for any irate gnomes looking for stolen boats.

We're in the clear for now, so we make for the guildhall and get a feel for what's been going on in town along the way. The general mood in the city is sharp. Shock and joy, anger and elation.

Another psychic might be distressed at perceived negative emotions around them. I am unbothered by them, though. What's the difference between a prickly person and a prickly bush? A cold, uncaring person and a mountain? Psychic energy is part of the texture of the world. People and places can be beautiful even when they are terrible.

I don't want it to be known that I can see other people's quests. Being a reincarnator isn't a huge secret but I doubt that one is common as most reincarnators didn't have to jailbreak their own system UI. I resolve not to get involved unless it's something that directly affects me or someone I like. I still skim the auras of everyone we pass as practice.

Skills increased: Clairvoyance (Empathy, Witness)

The Adventurers' Guild seems to be in the middle of an endless party (of the celebratory sort). We find Jade and Basalt sitting at a table eating, and join them.

"Hey guys," I say. "I thought you were staying in Hebron?"

"We came to look for 'junk' magic items to spawn dwarves with," Basalt says. "Rowan? I found your sword."

"What? Where?"

"The Dragon's Hoard had it," Basalt says. "Down in the second sub-basement."

"How are we going to get it?" Rowan wonders. "I can't believe I didn't ask while we were there."

"Eh, we were busy. Anyway, I bought it for you. Here you go."

Basalt pulls the sheathed sword out of his pack and hands it to Rowan. As he holds it, the experience clump bursts across his aura. Aether surges into him with the completion of the quest.

"Oh, thank the cores, that completed that stupid quest finally," Rowan says. "Drake, how much closer did that put me to Elite?"

"You're at 70% now," I say. "So another 10%, more or less."

"And I wasn't even the one who found it," Rowan says, examining the sword. "I would have expected it to have been sold by now."

"Yeah, about that," Basalt says. "Not to rain on the parade or anything, but apparently it's hard to find a buyer for an artifact that has a useless ability or crippling flaw and your sword's got both of them. Fern Amroth was happy to give me good deals, especially after Milo opened his mouth. He and Griza are here too, by the way. In any case, some of the things that had been sitting in her storage for too long and she thought she was never going to find a buyer, so she was happy to let them go for pocket change."

Rowan puts the sword on the table. "Let's talk about that useless ability and crippling flaw…"

"Go ahead and draw it and you'll see what I mean," Basalt says.

Rowan looks at him dubiously, then pulls the sword free of its scabbard. It makes a dramatic loud shing! like a gratuitous movie sound effect. Rowan frowns and examines the mouth of the scabbard, which does not contain any metal the sword could have scraped against.

"It makes that sound intentionally?" Rowan asks.

"Yep," Basalt says.

"Why!?" Rowan exclaims. "Ugh, no wonder Uncle Crow got captured. Is that the useless ability or the crippling flaw? Please tell me it's the flaw."

"According to Fern, it's attracted to weapons," Basalt says. "If someone else is wielding a sword, it will almost always hit that sword instead of them. I suppose that makes it good for parrying, at least. But that's apparently not what most adventurers are looking for."

"I guess that's not completely useless," Rowan says. "And most monsters don't wield weapons."

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