Never-ending comfort with a tingling of danger is pressing against my mind. I turn in the luxurious bed, not wanting to lose this moment of bliss in an amazing bed. The sense of danger flares more and more and I give in and open an eye to peer into the slight warmth of morning light that is filtering into the room. Looking around for the nagging danger that was poking at me, I don’t see anything and pull the soft covers up higher.

Trying to go back to sleep, figuring that my subconscious feels some form of guilt for enjoying these comforts. I hear a rustling and all notions of sleep disappear as I freeze and open my eyes wide trying to scan the room. I hear the rustling again coming from the floor. Holding my breath I slowly creep to the edge of the bed to find the source of the noise.

Sprawled across the floor are a dozen vines splayed out coming to a central stem that is as thick as my wrist and as long as my forearm. A closed bulb and more vines than I can count are shuffling through my bag. I am shocked by the sheer size of Violet stretched out across the floor as she roots around my bag.

After a moment I see a bunch of vines pull out of my pouch of seeds before she uses her vines to pull herself back to the door with the large pouch of seeds. She shoots a bunch of vines underneath the door and squeezes herself flat as she goes through the lower gap.

I almost give up and start to laugh when a small `thunk` happens. The stolen pouch does not want to go under the door and jams into it with an audible noise. A few more attempts appear to be baffling Violet and I hear a small ripping noise as the pouch spills its contents and the remains of the cloth bag quickly disappears under the door after leaving behind a mess. A few vines reappear trying to scoop the seeds back under the door before there are no more sounds.

“Damn she can be creepy if she wants to,” I whisper to myself as I try to snuggle back into bed. Dreams do not come back to me as I cannot help but think of the shadow or wraith-like movements of Violet creeping quietly across the floor and sneaking under the slit in the door.

I toss and turn for a long time before I start to hear the others starting to get up. I get out of bed and prepare myself for the coming journey home. As I approach the door, I can see a few missed seeds in front of the door and after opening it I cannot help but giggle as there is the most obvious trail of seeds heading towards and down the stairs.

I ignore it for now and head over to check in on Jessica and Zoe. Zoe is ready and is helping Jessica search her room and I’m able to understand that Jessica’s pouch of iron grass seeds is missing. I get them to follow me out and we find Akira waiting in the hallway.

Violet seems to be subdued as she hides while holding onto Jessica. She has a few tiny vines going down the length of her arms and tying around her middle fingers, similar to ornate lace, with her hair in another braid with small forward-facing horns. A small protective necklace of vines covers her neck and if I did not know better, I’d say that Violet was screaming that she could protect her companion. Able to make her appear like a rare beauty, in tune with nature, but also deadly with the threatening horns and protection running down her neck and arms.

As we walk downstairs, I show a shushing motion to the other two while pointing with my other hand at the seeds leaving my room and going down the stairs. Following the obvious trail downstairs, we can see them continue to the front door before pilling up a bit in front of the ajar window.

We all gather around the dining room table and grab some of the fruit that was left out as we eat. I get a couple of inquisitive gestures from Jessica and while chatting I hint at who the culprit was. Jessica seems to understand right away as to why Violet would be upset and asks Akira to follow her into the kitchen to try and assuage any fears that the poor Violet might have at being replaced.

“So how’s your progress been Zo?” I ask now that we are alone and trying to find something to chat about.

“Pretty good, I think I can try to form the pouch and maybe the grimoire today after I put aside some more mana embers. It’s been hard but it suddenly became much easier yesterday. I’m thinking it is like one of your skills, where it finally fell into place and the extreme struggle just disappeared and became a lot more natural. That or the rotweed seed finally acknowledged me as its master and is not fighting me bitterly for every inch of progress.” She said while opening up a hip pouch similar to ours. A soft teal light shines from within as she quickly rummages through it to count or estimate how many embers she has managed to accrue.

Jessica and Akira rejoin us to continue munching on some fruits.

“Akira, I’ve been experiencing something weird in the void recently...” I began, trailing off as I try to organize how I’m going to explain my invaders.

“Oh!? Do go on,” he says, cocking an eyebrow, his interest peaked or that this is unexpected.

“Well... After killing the first Guar, when I went into the void of my mana realm there was a knot of colors. Or... I don’t know... emotions, or memories of the creature. I tried pulling it apart and after a bit, it exploded and some of them touched me and I swear I... maybe... relived some of its life events or struggles.”

“Interesting.”

“What do you mean interesting? Do you know what that was? Should I be worried? Once we finished yesterday there were many more in my mana world.”

“I never experienced anything of that nature in the past... So I do not know what to tell you. Perhaps it is a unique trait of this state or a unique trait to you,” he replied. He was acting calm and perhaps I should also treat it as such...

“What about you Jessica? Did you have any uninvited guests in your mana realm?” I turn and ask Jessica who is twirling and comforting a vine that is extended out and holding her index finger.

Jessica freezes at my question before her face flushes a cute red all the way up to her ears while she looks down and away, not meeting my pleading gaze for reassurance.

“Oh!? Umm... Well... I didn’t bother going into my mana realm last night... Just give me a second.” She says as she goes from standing to sitting away from us in one fluid movement as she hides her face and takes a few deep breaths before going into a meditative trance.

I’m astonished at how fast she managed to flee into her mana world to escape. After only a few breaths she wakes up, her earlier embarrassment and blushing completely absent now.

“Nope, no unwelcome guests in my mana world, or at least nothing like what you described.”

“What about you Akira? Could you check your mana world? You killed some of the Guars yesterday.”

“I’ve not been able to dive into my own mana world in a very very long time. Before my current set of circumstances and have had to leverage the floating boxes that you refuse to believe me about.” He said while attempting to wear an aggrieved look that I can see through instantly.

I sigh, seeing no help from the group. We change topics and finish up eating and leave to go get our plaques and completion for the requisition. As we exit the front door of the small mansion, there is a pile of iron grass seeds and a ripped bag just outside the door.

I cannot help but laugh as Jessica hurries over and scoops up what she can into the untorn bag that survived to make it outside before kicking the rest of the seeds off the front step and into the garden just beside the entryway.

“The gardener will not be happy with that,” I say, giving the embarrassed Jessica a grin.

“It could be worse, I could’ve planted a rot weed seed instead. A little grass will not be too bad.” She said, looking away while still trying to kick some straggler seeds.

“Wait, you have another seed?” I ask, my confusion must have been evident on my face as she giggles at me.

“No... But if I did, it would be worse.”

“Okay, let’s check to see if any street vendors have anything nice to eat as we head to the guild to get our Dens and plaques back,” I say to the group as we head out in the early morning streets.

While happily munching on some sweets and pastries we get to the guild and are ushered up to the grumpy female vice-guild leader who is obviously putting on a grin and bearing through it. Our plaques are returned with a stamp with twelve dots of various shapes circling the symbol. Not knowing the code but it is probably meaning we hunted twelve of a beast and the pattern that circles it is probably a code to prevent us from defacing our plaques and simply adding more.

There are a couple of other cryptic glyphs stamped into the back of our plaques and I’m unable to decipher anything obvious about them.

She then tosses a small bag to Akira, which he briefly opens and then gives to me. Looking inside I see seven silver dens, it takes a bit for my brain to process the small fortune before I hand the bag off to our resident merchant. I realize the attempted power move of the vice-guild leader in providing it to Akira and not us girls. A testament to her thoughts that it is unearned or something stupid like that.

She then opens a drawer and also brings out another rotund bag and drops it with a clinking thud onto the edge of her desk. “Six hundred dens for the dozen confirmed guars.” She says in a monotone and with a forced smile. Thinking about attempting my own power move, I reach out to the heavy bag the size of a small melon.

Hefting the weight a bit in hand, I spin a thread of intent and drill it from the outside to the internal section of my soul storage. The vice-guild leader's eyes go wide at the sudden orange wispy portal opens up and I push the heavy bag through. My hand is briefly wrapped in the orange mists before I pull it back without the bag of dens.

“Huh, I can feel that there are six hundred dens within the bag exactly.” I say as it just feels right, the knowledge somehow known to my soul of the contents of the bag.

“Storages of that nature are able to do so. Even an enclosed or locked mundane box would pose no issue for you to peruse and remove the desired objects from it.” Akira says, falling back into his teaching persona, oblivious or purposely ignoring the vice-guild leader that is now gaping like a fish on land at the sudden display and tidbit of information that was just dropped.

Looking over towards Zoe, I can see that she’s practically vibrating while looking at me, almost forgetting the fact that she’s holding onto seven thousand dens. “That could potentially make us all expert thieves you know, able to abscond with the contents of any storage we come across.” Zoe mentions with near fanaticism at the possibilities.

“A-All of you!?” The vice-guild leader’s eyes dart between us, now putting more pieces together and her brain has caught up to control her face.

“Well... If you’ll excuse us.” I say as I thread an arm into both Jessica’s and Zoe’s while turning them around to make for the door.

“W-Wait! If we need to contact you, where can I send a paige?” She asks quickly, not wanting to be responsible for losing these potential silver whales.

“Nah, we’re just planning on heading home, visit our family, check in with our hometown guild.” I say while still making for the door, Akira taking up position behind us.

“How about I procure you a silver carriage for the trip and possible return after you’ve dealt with your own matters? I’ll need to speak with the guild master to draft up a possible contract that I guarantee will be absolutely well received.” She pitches everything so quickly I actually bring us to a complete stop.

“A silver carriage... Never been in one, that would be really nice for making the trip back more pleasant.” I mull over it aloud.

“Would beat walking, and Akira can only carry one of us at a time... maybe...” Zoe says as she nudges me in the ribs.

“We’ll accept, but we were planning on hitting the road before noon, either way.”

With that, we head out to go mull around on the bottom floor of the guild and watch as a couple of paiges leave the building running like their lives depend on it.

It doesn’t take long for a carriage to pull up to the front with two strong beasts nestled into their harnesses.

“That doesn’t look silver to me.” Akira mentions offhandedly as a white-haired gentleman in an elegant black robe opens the door to the carriage. Offering us a hand to help guide us in.

“The silver refers to the driver, who’d be a silver wind mage to help with the ride.” Jessica manages to speak up to answer Akira’s question, still looking away shyly.

After greeting the driver, who goes by the name of Augustus. We relay our destination and he begins to bring us out of the small mining town.

The carriage itself has four unlit lanterns in the four corners. The seats are of soft leather with a lot of padding. The windows of the carriage have some white fabric, letting in a nice glow and keeping everything bright inside. We’re sitting two by two across from each other. I’m sitting with Akira facing Zoe.

Peeking outside, I cannot help but exclaim at how fast we are going. The sound of the hooves is being kept away from us, but we are traveling at a full run. The carriage is not bumping around or jostling at all, gliding through the air it would seem. I point it out to Zoe who is more than happy to explain.

“The silver is keeping the sound away and we are most likely being kept up by a spinning cushion of wind. The underside of silver and gold carriages is kind of indented inwards to allow or maybe slowly warn away into that shape for the cushion of wind to give us an extremely smooth ride. Small lesser nobles are often given access to these.”

“W-What if we run into bandits again?” Jessica asks quietly.

“We normally going too fast for them to relay word, especially in a forest. Also, the Devra up front are no joke. With a proper wind mage, they’ll be trained to jump over most barricades. They got membranous wings, so with some wind, they can glide for quite some time. The silver would probably be able to have us jump up some fifteen to twenty feet in the air and glide over any barricade.”

Zoe goes into a full recounting of the benefits of Devras with a competent wind mage. How the creatures can stand on almost impossible objects and are best suited for the wind races in the Summer Canyon. Where they jump and bounce from wall to wall as they make their way through the race. A must-see competition for merchants to bet and help find promising individuals for high-value small object deliveries where time is crucial, deliveries of high-value auction items being their most expensive use.

After getting used to our current mode of transport, I was a bit curious about our mage friend driving the Devras. Blinking repeatedly, I stretch out a tether and with some effort, it seems to pass through the carriage wall and I am able to reach outwards and pass it through Augustus and the Devras.

I can see Augustus as a ghostly image with what appears to be a few faded red scars on his soul and one nasty long black scar going from shoulder to his hip, crossing over his heart. The black scar seems to radiate an ugly red fester along the boundary of the black. It would be difficult to tell the difference between a ‘pure’ or ‘unblemished’ soul as it is just a ghostly humanoid appearance with maybe a slight tinge of color. The unmistakable scarring of his soul would help to easily identify him.

I also note that the brief view of Akira’s soul previously was entirely black. Augustus does not appear to perceive me brushing a mana tether against his soul. The Devras are the same, gliding slowly between singular powerful steps. They appear to be running at an excruciatingly slow pace. Blinking furiously, I can see everyone within the carriage with the three ghostly images of Augustus and the two Devras floating and galloping at a gentle cadence outside of the carriage’s interior.

With the ride being as smooth as it is. Akira offers to watch over us and we all begin practicing. Zoe manages to create her soul pouch without much fanfare. Oddly enough, it has a curious amount of fuzz on the leaves, and we all pet it finding it to be one of the softest things we’ve ever touched.

“That could make for really nice pillows or fabric for some furniture.” I mention while petting Zoe’s bag.

“Ya, well I’m not sure how I’d feel with people touching my soul, or what they’d get up to while on it... Even if it is not directly my soul, it would still be weird... But for the right price...” She backtracks almost immediately while thinking of the possibility.

I look into my grimoire to check the changes that we managed from hunting a dozen guars and I’m happy with everything I see save my current savings in embers. I had mostly been burning them as I made them yesterday.

Taking out my rune stone, I want to focus on embers and settle myself into it. Focusing on pushing my mana depth and pulse to the next level while luxuriating in the effortless travel.

My first dive added me another 98 orange embers. This was followed by another for 105 and then 112, where I woke up to an ecstatic Zoe. She had managed to form her grimoire. It was the softest of teal colors, and fuzzy. She was constantly stroking the cover.

There was a bump on the spine where a gold swirl was in place, I recognize this as being where the core seed of her grimoire would be. When she was not stroking it, the fuzz would ripple on its own, like a field of grass where the wind would touch it gently, causing them to sway hypnotically across the cover. As the cover swayed, the grass would subtly shift colors, iridescent between teal with hits of gold.

Jessica and I could not help but reach over and also start petting the grimoire which had Zoe flush slightly before she began to tease us.

“Hey, you should at least offer me dinner before you start petting my most private parts that heavily!” Her teasing immediately resulted in a flushed red Jessica who squeaked as she sat straight up and away from Zoe. I however just grinned and started to pet more vigorously the newest softest thing I’ve ever had the opportunity to touch in my life.

Zoe stuck her tongue out at me while taking back ‘Ms. Fluffy’ and not allowing me to see what was stored within while she proceeded to tackle Jessica and try to tickle her out of her embarrassment.

Perhaps it was due to the noise, but there came a knock on Jessica and Zoe’s back wall. A small wooden panel slid away and Augustus cleared his throat. Jessica and Zoe had snapped to attention and were sitting all prim and proper all of a sudden after the small knocking sound had interrupted their tickling activities. Unfortunately, the image was ruined by Violet who was still batting away at Zoe’s head and hands playfully.

“Ehm! Excuse me, but we are approaching our destination young masters.” he told us through the small hole.

“Wow, we got here so fast!” I could not help but exclaim as I peeked out of the window to see that we were on the road heading south. The sun was still up, but we were nearing early evening and dusk was not would be arriving in short order.

We discussed amongst ourselves and decided we wanted to be dropped off outside of town and walk in. We did not want the absurd attention that a silver carriage would possibly net us in our small town. The gossip was always terrible and blew things out of proportion easily.

Augustus seemed to take the news as well as if we offered to stab his children. He finally relented and said that he’d be stationed at the guild for several days, or weeks and that he’d already been paid to give us a ride back to the mining town if we decided and that we ought to expect a more formal contract to be provided to us.

We parted ways with Augustus and his magnificent carriage up north by the lake and we walked back into town just as the sun started to dip and paint the sky a beautiful orange.

It was a bit too late to try and sell some of our silk, we should have sold it back in the Lekthar mining town. Once we hit the main roads back into town, it was then that we started to notice the strange atmosphere.

People were more subdued, some pointing at us and then taking the odd route down an alleyway. Keeping their distance. Akira’s presence shifted to that of a tightly strung bow, ready to snap and unleash on any threat. Zoe and Jessica also noticed the extremely odd behavior in that we were being treated as undesirables and people were leaving before we could even ask what is up.

Whispers were happening and some doors were being shut loudly as people scuttled away.

Zoe was muttering with Jessica as to some possibilities until I forgot all sound that was happening around me. We had turned down our own street and were getting the same cold welcome when something about the street just felt wrong.

It did not take long for me to realize what it was and I started to cry immediately as I picked up my pace and started to run home.

“Cara! Cara!!!” my friends yelled behind me, but I was deaf to it.

I stumbled past Jessica’s home and came up to my own... or what was left. The two feet of rocks that were the foundation of our home were there.

I stepped into the black and glassy area. The ground crunched beneath my feet as I broke small sheets of glass. To my right where we normally had some of what I termed the bargain bin was just melted slag. Most of my early engravings were in there. But now, there was just melted metal pooled on top of glass.

A giant glass ring ran across the ground, maybe two feet thick and twenty-some-odd feet in diameter. The entire second story was nowhere to be seen, just some grey and black ash painting the Perdu’s house.

Where my dad’s main anvil ought to be is just another pool of slag. I can see a long piece of melted metal against the back wall. My heart cannot take anymore but I know that it must be ‘Ness, dad’s prized creation, melted as well.

In the middle of what used to be our smithy, I fall to my knees, heaving and panting, crying out but I don’t hear it myself. I did not realize that my crying had gotten the attention of our neighbors and I simply claw and give gut-wrenching screams into Mrs. Perdu’s bosom as she is kneeling and rocking me.

I’m whisked away into the Perdu’s house as I still clutch at Mrs. Perdu as a lifeline.

“Where’s dad?” I manage to ask between wracking sobs after it has obviously become dark outside.

“I’m sorry sweety, we don’t know.” Mrs. Perdu says to me with as much tenderness as she can, while patting my hair and back.

“I need to know...” I whisper out and look up at Mrs. and Mr. Perdu, pleading for anything they can provide, as Jessica and Zoe step in closer and provide what support they can.