While we were gone, Meadow's older sister Acacia gave birth to a baby girl. We're obliged to at least stick around for her naming day. In the meantime, we practice our skills and prepare for a return to Hebron.

Now that I'm no longer pressed for time in the midst of a daring escape, I can focus on learning to activate sigils properly. Although I already have Wizardry (Vehicle Control), it takes a few days for the system to recognize my next skill. I touch the activation sigil of the magitech tea kettle and push with my vis.

Skill acquired: Wizardry (Sigil Activation) Description: The ability to send your vis into a sigil or sigil array to activate their effect.

Sigils gleam azure across the tea kettle's copper surface. The design on these is kept simple enough that even someone with low Wizardry can use them. The conditional flow checks for getting the contents to the right temperature, but the user doesn't need to do anything specific.

Using magic costs Inspiration, but it's more of the mental counterpart to Stamina than a "mana pool" or the like. Right now, it still takes a lot of effort because my magical "muscles" haven't built up much yet. Using all the minor magitech appliances in the Hearth is good exercise, though. I make sure to use every readily available sigil-marked item in the village and receive several more levels in [Sigil Activation] for my efforts.

"I've gotten the repairs on the boat done," Anise says. "My first [Sorcerous Aethernaut] skill is Sorcery (Ship Shape). I'm not sure what the name of the emotion of not wanting your boat to have holes in it, but it's a strong feeling to channel."

"Yeah, we all ought to learn boat repair skills," Basalt says.

On April 15th, the baby is given the name Robin. And on the 16th, we get going before someone else gets born. Lily looks like she could pop any day now and there are entirely too many babies in the Hearth right now. It's a fantastic time to go hang out with dwarves.

One of the hearth cats is pregnant and we do not need more kittens in Corwen Hearth at the moment, so we decide to bring her with us. Hearthkeeper Garnet said she wanted cats, after all. Although I'm not obsessed with them, it does feel weird not having cats around.

I set up a nice, soft cat bed on the skyboat for her to ignore in favor of squeezing into the most uncomfortable spot. Anise sets up some boxes to help her climb up over the railing. I then try to actually find the cat and get her onto the boat.

Mama cat, however, is not quite so cooperative. I try to put my rather low [Animal Handling] skill to use, then notice her eyeing the fish sandwiches Aunt Hazel has packed for our lunch.

"You want some of this, kitty?" I say.

The gray-and-white cat is now close enough to get a good look at her aura. I never asked what the cat's name was. I examine the cat's aura, but don't really get any information of note. Animal, cat, female, mother, pregnant, curious, hungry, neutral disposition. I can't tell how many kittens are inside her, safely protected by her sheath of vis.

Aunt Hazel approaches with another load of supplies. Once she puts them down in the boat, she turns to see what's going on.

"She's not going to give birth on the boat, is she?" I ask.

Aunt Hazel examines the cat and shakes her head. "No, she's only about halfway along. Unless it takes you weeks to get there, it should be fine."

I don't think the cat understands Common or English, but I speak to her anyway. "Come, mama kitty. If you liked that, there's more this way."

Aunt Hazel chuckles. "Go on, Mookie. I'm sure you'll love your new home."

"Her name is Mookie?" I ask. "No wonder [Naming] didn't get anything coherent."

Hearthkeeper Garnet will surely appreciate her impending catsplosion. I hope everyone there likes cats. Well, I'm sure they'll get "cat" aspect all over the spawner soon enough, anyway. Mystically imbuing dwarves with toxiplasmosis. Man, why do I remember that word but not the name of the snake staff I keep trying to carve?

Aunt Hazel sets up some food and water bowls for Mookie, as well as a litterbox, which I had completely forgotten about. The hearth cats usually just go outside and are free to roam within the safety of the village walls, but there's still a few litterboxes inside for when it's raining and for the older cats who aren't quite as mobile anymore.

"She's going to be terrified once we take off," Basalt says. "We ought to put her in a carrier of some sort so she doesn't freak out and try to jump off the boat or something."

"Caging her would make her 'freak out' more, not less," Aunt Hazel says.

"I have confidence I can keep the cat from jumping off the boat with Sorcery (Protection)," Rowan says. "I can't keep a forcefield around the boat at all times, but it's very reflexive to cast. I wasn't even trying to get it, but I did keep anything from hitting Drake."

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"Yes, but we also need to get her through the Underswamps," Basalt says. "I haven't had a chance to dig a straight tunnel through the labyrinth yet, assuming the terrain doesn't shift again."

Aunt Hazel ducks back into the Hearth and brings out a wicker basket with a lid and a sturdy handle. "Here, you can use this to carry her through the Underswamps," she says, setting it down in the boat and arranging a nest of blankets in it.

Following Aunt Hazel, Mookie climbs up the crates and into the skyboat. She stops and rubs against Aunt Hazel's leg before starting to sniff around. The feeding bowl is an immediate familiar draw, and she settles in to eat. Mookie eventually nestles in between two crates of low level magic items.

"Everything ready to go?" I ask as I run down a pre-flight checklist like someone who is actually half organized.

Skills increased: Persuasion (Animal Handling), Maintenance (Organization)

Once everyone is settled, I press my vis into the activation sigil on the stern of the Celestial Duck. Through Clairvoyance, I can see the flow of my vis along the lines of every sigil, connecting to one another in complex patterns. A skyship is a much more complicated magic item than a tea kettle, and there are a lot of conditionals and different options that I have no idea what they do. Anise works me through the ones Aunt Rosemary taught her and that she actually remembers, which is basically just the sails, cruise control, and artificial gravity.

This time, Rowan is handling the steering for practice and so I can focus on getting a better feel for the vis flow. This isn't the first time he has steered, but in a tense situation, he's usually protecting me and not doing complicated steering, so it's good to get in those early levels when you can. And Basalt is practicing Invocation (Rope Trick) in managing the sails. He had managed to pick it up over the past week.

"I have a feeling dwarves would be good at Invocation," Basalt says. "Luckily, your Hearth's library had a book on [Rope Trick] as a fun beginner Invocation spell."

[Please demonstrate that you can control the sails before we take off,] I send to him.

"Aye aye, Captain Kirk," Basalt says.

[I'm more of a Spock.]

Once Basalt has shown that he will not cause any disasters with his mental rope work, I send to Anise to take the tiller and bring us into the air. Jade and Rowan stand ready to assist if anything goes wrong or the cat does anything stupid, but we manage to lift into the air without hitting anything. The Celestial Duck rises straight up until it's at least a few times the height of the central tower before setting off to the north.

"The storm is still building," Rowan says. "Tempest seeks to challenge us."

Lightning crackles over the Black Mountain, bristling with experience. Like a honey pot, the mountain offers a sweet reward if we take the bait and fly into the storm. I'm betting there's a Deed dangling in the Eye of Tempest. I'm not tempted. It's not going anywhere. It will still be there when we level up enough to survive the trip.

Avoiding the worst of the storm, we make our way to Nefern and pull in to dock. Mookie spends the entire trip asleep in her basket with a belly full of fish, staying out of the rain. Lucky her.

Skills increased: Enhanced Soul (Aether Sailing), Wizardry (Vehicle Control), Enhanced Senses (Wind Detection, Celestial Inspiration), Clairvoyance (Witness)

Eight-year-old Poppy Nefern comes out to say hi and inform us that her brother Colt is not being allowed to leave their Hearth anytime soon for not telling anyone he was leaving with us. He still thinks it was totally worth it for getting Elite, even if he's as deep into farm chores and homework as they can make him at the moment.

For once, we're trudging through the Underswamps with the confidence that if we run across any Heroic swamp monsters, we can totally take them. Or one. Probably. Or at least we might not die immediately and Anise could probably go toe-to-toe with one now.

The Underswamps is quiet today (relatively speaking, give or take some noisy subterranean wildlife), and nothing bothers us on the way to Hebron. We've almost reached the Hebron Stair (as Basalt insists on calling it with audible capital letters) when I detect a lurking Heroic aura.

I point it out to my party telepathically and pull out my frost wand. It psychically feels like a used couch sticky with unmentionable fluids, but it's what I've got and I'm nowhere close to being able to make sigils precise enough to copy it yet.

Mookie pokes her gray, fuzzy head out from the basket Rowan is carrying, nudging the lid open to see what's going on.

"It's okay, kitty," Rowan murmurs. "I'm just going to stay back here and make sure nothing hurts you or Drake. We're almost there."

We confront the stinking fungus monster at a longer stretch of tunnel where I can safely get some range on it. Basalt, Jade, and Anise draw their blades and meet the enemy in melee. Anise's sword blazes with orange flame, but Basalt's bronze axe and Jade's daggers are normal and boring.

Having a real magic wand makes me feel like an actual Wizard, even if it's only got one spell and I'm not nearly as impressive at it as my grandmother is.

Anise sears a gash into the fungal creature with her burning blade. Basalt and Jade shred off small chunks of its lichen "hair". I lightly dust the monster in snow.

Mookie tucks her head back into the basket, lid sliding closed. Rowan stays back next to me, shield in one hand and cat carrier in the other. The swamp monster spits a glob of black goop toward me, but Rowan swiftly intercepts it with his shield.

After a brief but telling battle, the mobile fungus collapses and is still, its vis sublimating into aether and cascading into our auras.

Your party has defeated the Swamp Creature Skills increased: Clairvoyance (Aura Sight), Discipline (Composure) Skill acquired: Wizardry (Elemental Barrage) Description: Increases power and accuracy to elemental attacks from magic items.

I'd practiced with the wand a bit back at Corwen, but hadn't gotten the skill unlocked until I was actually in serious combat.

"You certainly look happy," Anise says. "New skill?"

"Wizardry (Elemental Barrage)," I say.

"Great!" Anise exclaims, and looks at the basket. "How's Mookie?"

[Agitated but unharmed,] I reply.

Rowan murmurs soothingly toward the basket. "It's alright. The stinky monster is dead. We're almost to your new home. Let's get you there, okay?"

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