Anise, Basalt, and Jade were not seriously injured in the fight, so they let me practice with my healing staff as we arrive at Hebron. Pushing my vis through the carved wooden stick is different from using the wand. Even with the life sigil added, the staff feels more primal. I had practiced with it as well as Corwen's novice Wizardry books with only a single sigil on each page, but didn't feel like letting my little sister torture me for healing practice as I had other things to do.

"I'm sure Aunt Rosemary is about to tell me I have to be one with the item or something," I mutter as we descend the stairs.

"Well, it worked for me with the rope," Basalt says.

"Rowan, care to make a try?" Anise says. "You wanted to be a Paladin, yeah?"

"Yes, but I'm not going to use a staff for that," Rowan says. "I'd been planning on learning Thaumaturgy (Lay On Hands). I do not currently have a hand free."

Jade laughs. "Might not be the best pick then, eh?"

"I don't plan on carrying large baskets into battle regularly. I would normally put them down before a fight but I didn't want the cat to get stomped. A gathering basket full of mushrooms is replaceable. Anyway, [Lay On Hands] is meant for deeper healing than quick combat patch jobs that just keep you from bleeding out."

"Let's get Mookie to her new home and then you can try your skill," Basalt says. "[Rapid Healing] will fix me up soon enough if you can't. My shoulder stings like the dickens but it's not going to kill me."

"What are dickens?" Rowan wonders.

We head for the hearth, where we find Aunt Rosemary, Milo, and the two new dwarves, Garnet and Crystal. Hearthkeeper Garnet is in the kitchen area chopping some knotty green tubers that are definitely not potatoes. Milo and Crystal hunch over a paper-strewn table, deep in an animated discussion about something involving far more numbers than I care to think about. Aunt Rosemary is listening to them and taking notes. When they hear us enter, they decide it's a good time for a break.

Rowan sets the basket down in a warm spot under the table next to us and murmurs soothingly to the cat inside.

"You brought a cat?" Crystal asks, leaning over to take a closer look at the basket.

"Garnet wanted cats, so we brought a mama cat from Corwen," Basalt says. "Give her a minute to calm down. We had to kill a swamp monster on the way in."

"You actually killed one of thsoe things?" Crystal says. "I poked my head out and saw one and went back down the stairs so fast. Didn't follow me, thank Hebron."

"Yeah, we killed it," Basalt says, sitting down and peeling back layers over his injured shoulder with a hiss. "Rowan, if you would?"

Rowan sets down his shield and pack, and pulls a book out titled 7 Essential Spells for the Aspiring Paladin. "This book was expensive so I hope it's worth it." He flips through the book. "By 'expensive' I mean it was 12 silver. Probably not actually that expensive but that was just from delving low level dungeons. Aha, here it is."

Upon locating the page in question, Rowan holds it open on the table with one hand and puts his other on Basalt's chest. His aura shimmers, and life-aspected vis gathers in his hand.

"Didn't need an audience for this," Rowan mutters as he realizes everyone is watching. "I'm not sure if this is even working."

"Keep going," I say. "You're definitely doing something."

Eventually, Rowan gets the spell, and he even manages to do it before Basalt's own skills fully heal the wound.

Meanwhile, Mookie has poked her head out of the basket and is peeking out at her new surroundings with curious caution, or cautious curiosity. When Hearthkeeper Garnet finally spots her, she practically squeals in delight.

"Is that a cat?" Garnet asks. "A precious ball of fur? A pretty kitty? A stolid moggie?"

"Her name is Mookie," Rowan says.

Garnet fawns over the cat and gets her a shallow bowl of giant cave newt meat, and Mookie comes out of her basket long enough to take a small nibble, then ducks back inside.

Anise chuckles. "Bet she's never had cave newt before."

Garnet leaves the bowl and gets back to work, leaving the cat to get comfortable on her own time.

"That's a… gloriously goblinish caduceus you've got there," Milo says.

"I didn't remember what it was called," I say.

"The caduceus is the staff of Hermes and was used as a symbol for commerce," Milo explains. "You might have confused it with the Rod of Asclepius, which has a single snake and no wings and is a symbol for medicine."

"How did you ever manage to remember 'Asclepius'?"

Milo waves a hand. "Recollection skills help with minutiae such as that."

"Well, it did still have life aspect in it even before I put the sigil on it," I say.

"I suppose it had been used enough for medicine to have picked up that association as well. You can probably do much more than healing with it."

"I can't even do healing yet," I say. "I'm working on it."

After debriefing and settling in, not to mention a hot meal, I visit Hebron's core room. There's no indication that anything noteworthy stands behind the relief carving of an elephant trampling grapes, but [Psychometry] or [Stone Sense] would be able to detect a handle. I reach in, turn something I can't see with my eyes, and pass right through the stone wall.

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Four plaques are affixed to the wall, each of them with images of Hebron's three dwarves and one human along with their names and classes. Garnet's and Crystal's plaques are made of wood, but Basalt's and Jade's have changed to iron with their ascension to Elite rank. Hopefully they'll be able to manage their own achievements, and given the number of spreadsheets Crystal was looking at, I think she must have gotten a good start.

Basalt has plans to bring the dwarf population up to seven for now, as is traditional, and I find myself glad that Hebron did not name the human girl 'Snow'. We've spent a lot of time discussing our next four dwarves. Our next one will be a smith, followed by a brewer. The last two we haven't decided on yet.

I head downstairs to the core room and say, "I'm here to discuss souls, Hebron."

[I will assist,] Hebron replies. [Would you like to see the list? Corwen let me unlock the upgrade for it since you were last here, since you asked for it.]

A new button appears in my third eye UI, bearing a swirly icon that opens up into a window.

Primary Soul Nexus Available filters: cost range, age, spawning preferences, affinities Sorting options: cost, chronological, alphabetical, best match

There's a magnifying glass icon, so I run searches on some various names out of curiosity. Starting with… Annie Fizzlesnipe.

Match found. She's currently incarnated by the name Shanti Kaithal Tea Muntallon. I'm surprised that I can see that much. And that there's a domain somewhere named Tea. I should visit, if I can ever figure out where it is. I write down the name in my notebook and move on.

I run searches on several famous figures out of curiosity, and find that they are all far out of my range at the moment and mostly have lengthy queues. I put a filter for souls that are willing to come for a payment of less than fifty thousand essence.

These were the nobodies with no great achievements to their name. The bulk of the names have listed occupations as peasants, accountants, and the occasional Buddhist monk. It feels incredibly weird and a little uncomfortable to see so many details about the souls seeking reincarnation, though I'm not sure why. They're basically just soul resumes.

[You can also search by best matches when you have items ready on the spawning platform,] Hebron adds helpfully.

[It's a tiny bit overwhelming to see a list of everyone in the Crystalline Heavens,] I think. [Even with filters. I didn't realize there were quite this many souls here. Though it has been a very long time so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.]

The thing about all those peasants? They're copies. That's why they're so cheap. Garnet wasn't the original soul of the Scottish woman she remembers being. She's descended from a dwarf who had been one of that woman's reincarnations. She doesn't have specific memories about it, though, anymore than I remember how I wound up on that spaceship, but it explains why she's so comfortable being a dwarf. I suppose it doesn't matter. Existential dread is for people who aren't having fun with their lives.

I leave the core room and meet up with Basalt to discuss the new dwarves.

"I want to make sure the statues are as good as we can make them in a reasonable amount of time," Basalt says. "They can learn more skills once they exist but we could really use more hands around here."

"We're Elite now, so we can probably make even better statues," I say. "We're making the metalworker next, yeah?"

Basalt nods. "We've got plenty of copper, at least. And the Ardent Pathfinders left a bit of tin here before they went off to subjugate the mushroom jerks. They left a note on the map saying they found it in a dungeon with a recommendation of at least four Elites."

"Figures that they'd gate material upgrades," I say. "I'm betting there's iron and silver on the third layer. Gold and whatever on the fourth layer. Something like that, maybe."

Basalt snickers. "We can probably make a little bronze with what we've got, but we don't have a forge yet and we'll need to make an expedition to the mine ourselves if we want more."

"I want to spawn someone who knows how to build a forge," I say. "I only have the most general idea of what goes into one. Do you?"

"Good point. Let's spawn another medieval dude, then."

We spend the next few weeks carving the statue and crafting the necessary tools, practicing our skills as we do so. I try to pay a little less attention to the numbers going up and focus on what I'm doing. Basalt unlocks a few dwarfy skills from it almost immediately. The system recognizes innovation and not merely repetition. To get practice in crafting different things, we make one of every kind of metal item we can think of. Tableware, utensils, weapons, tools, jewelry.

I'm having a blast trying to make a small copper fork when I get a system message on my best result yet.

Skill acquired: Invocation (Copper Affinity) Description: You have a connection to copper and may conduct energy of any type through it.

I have barely read the skill description before accidentally electrocuting myself with a fork. (Okay, more like jolting yourself with static when touching a handle.)

"Holy crap I did magic!" I exclaim, holding aloft the fork like it's a sacred relic.

Any type of energy? I point the fork like a wand and focus upon the concept of wind, and push it through the copper. A gust of air scatters some dust.

I spin around in circles. "This is so cool!"

"Congratulations," Basalt says, clapping me on the back. "Let's take a break and go show the others."

Yes, technically I was doing magic with the frost wand, and doing magic with Clairvoyance, but somehow this feels different. Wizardry is essentially just magitech, but Invocation is a more primal symbolic connection to an object. I can clearly see, even in this simple fork, the concepts that copper symbolizes. Connection, conduction, harmony, life. Associated with tools, machines, and commerce more than weapons of war.

"I wasn't trying for this specific skill but I'm more than happy with it," I say. "I'll need to test to see what I can do with it, but it costs a ton of Inspiration even with my various regeneration skills running at full blast."

The others are in the hearth, and I tell them about my new skill.

"So you've just unlocked an Affinity skill," Aunt Rosemary says. "Congratulations! Would you like to hear a quick tutorial?"

"Of course," I say. "Far be it from me to deny you your one job."

"Affinity skills are particularly useful in that they can conduct any sort of magical effect connected to their symbolism. Many of the dwarves will likely unlock [Stone Affinity] or [Gem Affinity] once they reach Elite, but that requires symbolism for the specific type of stone. Likewise, [Wood Affinity] depends upon the symbolism of the tree the wood came from. [Metal Affinity] is the same, it depends on the type of metal."

"I don't have [Metal Affinity], though," I say. "I have [Copper Affinity]."

Aunt Rosemary nods. "The more specific the effect, the stronger it tends to be. A general [Material Affinity] also exists, but is weaker than any more specific one."

"Copper is specifically about versatility and connections," I say. "Creation, transformation, protection, and restoration. I can see the list right there with [Psychometry]."

"Clairvoyance is quite convenient," Aunt Rosemary says. "Normally, one would need to read a book or listen to a lecture to discover that unless they wanted to experiment with it themselves."

"With Clairvoyance, the world is like a book," I say. "I'll need to test what I can do with this, but that will take time and Inspiration, and we're just about ready to spawn our next dwarf. You'll want to be there to deliver a tutorial, I assume."

"Of course."

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