Vin had been worried that something had happened to Lumel when she failed to come help him move between islands like she said she would. Had she fallen off the island and been devoured by one of the World Eaters? Angered the seemingly peaceful avisul and been attacked by a few dozen sharpened talons? Choked on a surprise lump of meat that had been drifting in the eternal stew for the last fifty years without anyone noticing?

In the end, it ended up being none of those things.

She was meditating.

Vin could only snort as he entered their tent to find Lumel sitting cross-legged on the fluffy ground, deep within her own thoughts. He knew from their many conversations she had Introspection as well, and while she seemed better at keeping track of time while within the skill after years of practice, clearly, she still slipped up every now and again.

Assuming she was working on something big enough to take her entire focus, Vin decided to leave her to it. Snapping someone out of Introspection while they were at a critical point in their runic formation crafting could result in a runic backlash in even the more skilled of mages, and if Lumel was working on a tier 3 or 4 spatial spell, the results could be quite lethal.

Yawning, he moved over to the edge of the tent and brought out his merider-silk blanket. After an entire day spent working on Create Cloud his mind was exhausted, and he quickly fell into a deep slumber.

When he awoke the next morning, he was surprised to find Lumel still within her meditative trance, which made him grow a tad concerned. Presumably, she had begun working on whatever it was she was doing early yesterday morning, the same time he went off to meet the Cloud Whisperers. It had now been more than twenty-four hours, which was a remarkably long time to maintain one's focus.

He wanted to check on her and make sure she was okay, but again, he had no way of doing that without potentially causing her to make a mistake. Grunting in frustration, he sat down across from her and stared at her core, wishing he could see what she was working on within her own mana pool.

To his shock, suddenly, he could.

Vin blinked as his perspective seemed to shift almost, and Lumel's body was replaced with a black void roughly in the shape of a humanoid. Within it, he could make out a remarkably complex runic formation unlike anything he had ever seen. Even as he stared, more and more bits and pieces of mana were being harnessed from around the void, solidifying into a new line here or a small curve there, adding onto the already constructed runes. He didn't have the faintest idea of what was being built, but from the looks of it, it had to be nearly finished.

It was already vastly more complicated than anything he'd ever seen, which meant Lumel was either putting the final touches on a tier 4 spatial spell, or was somehow powerful enough to work on the runic formation for a tier 5. He sat there, watching her progress for a few minutes, blown away by the sheer fact that he could somehow see what she was doing within her own pool of mana.

Lesser Arcane Discovery! 5,000 exp gained.

Well that confirms that… Yet another strange thing Beyond the Veil is capable of doing. What a weird prestige class I ended up with.

Deciding he didn't want to accidentally scare her by having her open her eyes and find him right in front of her, Vin got up and headed outside. The sun was shining almost directly overhead, which meant it was even later than he'd expected. Vin headed off toward the center of town, intending to grab a bite to eat. On his way, he spotted a handful of young avisul flying around overhead in another game of airborne hide-and-seek, and he could only marvel at the sheer speed and grace they maneuvered through the air with. There was one much younger avisul who was struggling to find a good spot to hide, and after Vin got his attention with a wave of his hand, he quietly created a small cloud for him to hide within. The avisul beamed and nodded, before tucking within the dense cloud and vanishing from sight.

"I see you've already mastered the basics," Telin said, surprising him as the decrepit avisul appeared out of nowhere, suddenly standing right beside him. Letting out a wheeze that Vin would have bet his life savings on was one final death rattle, Telin cleared his throat and continued. "Ah, to be young again. Sometimes I like to come out here and simply watch the fledglings soar about the sky. Reminds me of my own youth."

"…How old are you ex-"

"I wanted to ask how much longer you and your friends are planning to stay," Telin wheezed right over him, either not hearing him, or choosing to ignore the question in its entirety. Seeing as the man hadn't displayed any hearing issues before now, Vin could only assume it was the latter. "Not that your company hasn't been enjoyable, and we do like our new tree. But we are a simple folk, and some of your companions' antics have been… a tad disruptive."

"Disruptive? Did someone do something to disturb your people?"

The moment the words left his mouth, one of the smaller clouds drifting along above the main island suddenly shattered, raining tiny pieces of ice in all directions. Vin stared up at the cloud in shock, which meant he got a front row seat to see a screaming Scule plummet about fifty feet, before landing face-first in on the main cloud only a few dozen feet away. Vin could only stare as Scule popped up out of the cloud, brushing himself off before realizing Vin and Telin were watching him.

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"Oh, hey Vin! What's up?"

"Scule, what the hell are you doing?" he demanded, pointing up where the small cloud had once floated. "What if you hadn't been floating over the main island? And why are you destroying their clouds in the first place?!"

"Relax! I picked that cloud because it didn't have anything on it and it was floating above the main island," Scule scoffed, as if the thought of him doing anything else was ridiculous. "And as to why, I was testing out a new poison I've been working on. Those stingray monsters have a strange venom that's clearly magical. Seems to cause anything they stab to freeze over, literally. I saw some of them stab it into a cloud to make it shatter so they could hunt the insects within that tried to scatter, I was just curious if I could do the same. Pluck gave me permission."

"It is not the destruction of the cloud that is the issue," Telin wheezed, frowning down at Scule. "Our Cloud Whisperers can easily make more. It is the sudden noises and surprises that are disturbing people. We dislike being surprised."

"I'm sorry, Telin, Scule didn't know," Vin said hurriedly, staring at the petian and trying to mentally will him to apologize. Scule simply stared at him with an eyebrow raised, looking confused. Rolling his own eyes, Vin continued. "In fact, we were planning to leave sooner than later. We've been gone long enough as it is. Though I wanted to thank you one final time for your assistance in saving us from falling back into the darkened depths, as well as all your hospitality."

"Of course! One should always strive to do good," Telin nodded, looking far more pleased now that he knew they'd be leaving soon. "If you are ever in the area again, please, don't hesitate to drop by. For a short visit."

Thanking him one final time, Vin watched the old avisul hobble off, before turning to frown at his companion. "Be honest. Were you waiting for our conversation to try your experiment? That was all a bit too well-timed."

"Oh yeah I was. I was trying to land on your head, so I missed the landing by a few feet, but still pretty impressive if I do say so myself," Scule snickered, looking pleased with himself. "Anyway, I'm about ready to head out. Not exactly anything I can really steal here, and I've done about all the poison testing I can without more reagents or test subjects."

"We'll be heading out shortly," Vin said, glancing up at the sky. They still had quite a large portion of the day left with how late the sun actually set, but unless Lumel finished up soon, he'd probably request they wait until tomorrow. After experiencing what happened to the solid clouds when the sun went down, he didn't want to risk a repeat of last time.

"Music to my ears! In that case, I should probably go grab Reginald and let him know."

"What's he even been doing all this time?" Vin asked, realizing he hadn't seen heads or tails of Reginald in days.

"He's been 'on vacation,'" Scule said, rolling his eyes. "Last I checked, the fat rat was splayed out in the sun on a tiny cloud he'd somehow gotten his paws on, sipping stew through a cloud straw. I asked if he wanted to practice any stealth maneuvers with me, and he told me not to bother him until we were leaving."

"Huh… Good for him. God knows that rat's been through a lot."

"You sound just like my sister," Scule snorted, turning and waving as he walked off. "I'll be waiting to go by the tents!"

Finally getting the stew he'd originally set off for, Vin drank from the bowl as he used his Create Cloud stepping stone technique to make his way off the main island and over to where Shia spent most of her time. Sure enough, he found the Druid tending to a small tree growing out of a thin layer of dirt on a cloud.

"Vin?" Shia blinked, staring at him as he walked. Or more accurately, she stared at how tiny clouds seemed to whirl into existence directly under where he was about to step, before vanishing a few moments after he walked off them. "Wow, that is going to do some serious numbers for your image back on Terra."

"I'm not planning to do this too often," he sighed, stepping down onto her small island. "How's the tree?"

"Growing well! It was tricky getting it set up with so little dirt, but I was able to coach the tree how to grow in order to make the best of its situation," she said, smiling as she stroked one of the branches. The tree reminded him almost of a Christmas tree, albeit one that was a bit more squat and wide. "The tree's finally capable of supporting its own growth, however, so I'm good to head out whenever you are."

"Great, that's actually what I was just coming to check on. Scule wants to leave as well, so I think we're just waiting on Lumel to finish a spell she's been working on since yesterday morning, and then we're good to go."

"Yesterday morning?" Shia repeated, glancing up at the sun directly overhead and letting out a low whistle. "Tier 3 or 4?"

"I'm pretty certain tier 4, but not a hundred percent. Hopefully we'll find out soon enough."

"Let me say my goodbyes, and I'll meet you back at the tents," Shia said, turning back toward the tree and beginning to whisper quietly to it. More than used to the Druid's unique relationship with plants, Vin nodded and cloud-walked his way back to the main island. Giving the clouds just enough mana to support a single footstep was incredibly cost-effective, but even so, casting the same spell over and over again so many times was a bit draining, at least mentally. Happy to be back on solid cloud once more, he made his way back to the tents, pleased to spot Lumel ducking her way out of their tent and blinking at the bright, midday light.

"Welcome back to the land of the living!" he laughed, waving as he walked over. "How was your new spell?"

"Good… How long was I working on it?" she asked, looking disoriented.

"Long," he smiled. "Anyway, are you about ready to help us head out? Scule and Shia are on our way, and we may have overstayed our welcome just a bit."

"Yeah… Yeah, I'm good to leave whenever," she nodded, finally getting her bearings and giving him a big grin. "You're going to love my new spell."

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