January 25, 2019, 8:58 am.

"This Ivicka, she is the K'tharn yeh told me was one of our leads, correct?" Demo asks, pulling me back on task.

"Indeed. She's Tipan's sister," Roberts confirms while leading the way into Ocean's Breeze.

We find Pefe behind the desk, staring at us as we rush into her lobby.

"Have you seen our companions. We've had something come up?" Roberts asks her while I use my link to determine that the others should be through the back wall.

She directs us to a garden in the back even as I'm about to tell him the same. Following her directions through a thin bead curtain, we find the others in a picturesque garden eating breakfast.

Specifically, I notice Beth hand-feeding Josh a small piece of fruit while Tipan is picking a sausage off a plate stacked with them.

"Good morning. I'm glad you could join us," Tipan greets us, relief in her voice as she throws a sideways glance at Josh and Beth. Not handling the early couple closeness well, I'm guessing.

"Good morning to you as well. Unfortunately, we have bad news," Roberts replies while Demo grabs a sausage from the little ornate table they're resting on.

I immediately follow suit, grabbing some for Smoulder and myself as I follow up, "Yeah. Looks like Ivicka might have followed us here."

"Unfortunate. Still, we knew there was a chance she'd find us," Beth reflects, leaning back in her chair. "That's part of why we chose this enclave. She shouldn't be able to do much to us here."

Tipan's already nodding when she asks, "did you see her? Or did you catch sight of her dragon, Asterix?"

"Neither. Roberts recognized one of the K'tharn from her flight," I explain before I take a bite. The sausage is surprisingly sweet.

"Oh. Did you happen to note her name?" Tipan asks, sitting up straighter in her chair.

"Not much time for that. She was gone in a blip," Demo responds.

Blip, huh? Even during our practice sessions he's never used that word before. I guess it wouldn't come up when discussing how to create a fireball or while dodging ice blasts.

"She was the guard who brought us our meals, grey with black stripes. She had a tendency to stay and talk at us even though we were barely conscious," Roberts supplies in place of her name.

"Ah. That would be Cristha. That's a relief." Tipan slouches back into her chair at that.

"Why is that a relief? You've never mentioned this Cristha before," Beth observes, glancing at Roberts for a second before focusing on Tipan.

"She was a last-minute addition to our Flight's training exercise. Her mother had insisted she be included. Ivicka spent days complaining about the disruption to our plans. She was glad to have her once we caught you though. Ivicka didn't want to let me near you, but Cristha was someone she wouldn't miss if you did anything drastic."

"You know, I never did understand why Beth was kept apart from the guys," I interject while snagging another couple sausages.

"Ivicka believes that having males aboard a Float is bad luck. Especially while anchored in the outer skies. She figured keeping them unconscious was the absolute least we had to do. She'd originally intended to bond them to the bottom of the Float," Tipan explains.

"Wait. Ivicka's superstitious?" I gasp, incredulous.

"Well. It's not like we have many males in the Aetherium," Tipan responds defensively, surprising me with her suddenly closed arms.

"Does that mean she's… scared of us?" Josh asks, giggling partway through his question.

"Scared you'll bring bad luck to her flight, yes. To be fair, she was kind of right," Tipan replies with a wry grin. "We did escape her grasp then destroyed her summons."

"It could have been much worse," Beth points out.

"True, but I doubt she'll see it that way. But as for Cristha, her being here doesn't tell us whether Ivicka's here as well. Cristha grew up in Glimmering Sands. So, she may be visiting home or even have been kicked out."

"Well. In that case, we need to find out if Ivicka's here. Suggestions?" Beth prompts.

"I believe we should ask the desk clerk. It seems Cristha purchased several souvenirs. It's possible she knows her," Roberts suggests.

"Good idea. Kid, why don't you and Josh go talk to our host?" Beth requests before turning back to Roberts, "Any other ideas?"

Nodding, I grab another couple of sausages. Smoulder is actually eating them uncharred.

"We could visit the barracks," Tipan suggests as Josh rises from the table.

With Smoulder catching bits of sausage as I toss them to her perch on my shoulder, Josh joins us as we walk back into the lobby where Pefe is stacking several of her items into a crate. When she notices us approaching, she stops what she's doing, brushing her lower paws on her thighs before turning towards us, turning on her 10,000-watt smile. "Ah, what can I help you with?"

With a smile that bright, I'm glad I don't burn easily.

"The K'tharn who was here, just before I arrived, do you know her?" I ask, looking at the contents of the crate. Several different fish-themed plates and bowls are packed neatly, a spongey red material cushioning them.

"Cristha? Sure, why? What did she break now?" Pefe asks, running one of her paws through her fur while glancing towards the garden.

"She didn't break anything ma'am," Josh answers, shaking his head. "We have a mutual acquaintance, we were wondering if you had contact details."

"Oh. Of course. I can send her a message. Who should I say is messaging her?" Pefe offers, meeting Josh's level gaze.

"Oh, I'm not sure. I need to ask Beth," Josh realizes after a second's thought. Hehe. Yep. I'm not sure what to say either? 'Excuse me, is your old boss here to try to kill/capture us?'

I mean, that's what we want to know, but would Pefe even send that message? I doubt it.

"Sure. Cristha's a good kid. I'm sure she'll be willing to help you out," Pefe replies before turning back to boxing her collectables.

Even as Josh saunters back to the others, I stay to ask Pefe about her packing, "Why are you putting all that stuff away? It's obviously high quality."

She stops in place for a moment, looking down at the plate she's currently holding, an inscription of a K'tharn battling against one of the long neck sea creatures, their ship nearly crushed beneath its massive bulk.

"The upcoming festival is going to have a lot of Aetherium and free K'tharn in each other's fur here. When they mix in large numbers, things tend to get broken," Pefe explains, running her hand over the inscribed surface, caressing it gently before placing it in the box.

"Oh. I thought the Lords had rules against that sort of thing?" I ask, watching as she resumes her packing.

"Sure. But getting into a mutually agreed duel doesn't break the rules. It's amazing how often they'll pretend they agreed to a duel after the fighting's over. And sure, they have to pay for anything they break. But it's not always about the essence, you know?" she asks, looking over to me with a sad smile.

"It's about preserving beauty, right?"

Nodding, she closes the box before setting it to the side then sitting in the chair it was recently occupying.

"Exactly. I'll be leaving out some of the children's earlier practise pieces and the more durable copper grade creations. But the regular stuff, created from mortal material but still beautiful? Those I'll put away for a less rowdy crowd."

Nodding with her, we remain silent for a moment, both of us looking across the many works in her lobby turned gallery.

It's into this moment of reflection that Josh returns, bringing news from the outside world! Also known as everyone in the garden. Or possibly just Beth.

Noticing our shared silence, he doesn't speak immediately. After a moment, Pefe turns to him and asks, "So? What message did you want me to send her?"

Josh stares at the ceiling while reciting, "They said, 'there's a difference between captors and captives. Would you be willing to grab lunch to discuss this dynamic as we did before? Sincerely, your favourite skyborne, Tipan.'"

"Sure. Did you have a time and place?"

"Ah. Yes. Beth said they'd meet at that restaurant you recommended for dinner. About 5 tonight. Paid by Tipan," Josh answers, directing his attention towards her again while playing with the loose end of his new belt. It's still pink, but it's a light faded pink that contrasts well with the darker pink of his robe.

Pefe stares at him for a second before nodding. Then she gets a distant look in her eyes as we wait for her. A couple of seconds later, she opens her eyes, glancing back at Josh. "Kay. Cristha says, and I quote, 'Yes! Yes! Yes! Tell her I'll be there! I'd love to go to Suelo's with Tipan.'"

We really should have let Beth and Tipan handle this. Now we get to once more, relay a message.

Stepping out to the garden balcony, I find Demo inspecting the plants while Tipan, Roberts and Beth are gathered around the little table, the sausages cleared away. On the table is a projected vision of the Enclave. My eyes are drawn to the clean-cut where the tower just disappears, making it look like a tree stump instead of a tower. Makes sense, it'd be hard to see anything else with the full tower on display.

Josh relays that Cristha has agreed to meet Tipan while I poke the middle of the tower, not causing so much as a ripple in the floating image.

"Alexis, will you be able to watch Tipan's back with Demo? I'd rather not have them meeting alone and you can both keep tabs on her without being in sight," Beth requests, causing me to turn to Demo in surprise. I didn't realize he had an ability like mine. I wonder how his works? Maybe I'll ask him later while we're on our stakeout.

"But before that, I think it's time to check out the local barracks. I mean, it would be a shame not to avail ourselves of our 'enforced peace'."

"Indeed. Though from Tipan's description the only thing we'll be able to ascertain with any ease is whether Ivicka's dragon is there," Roberts observes while tapping the location of the barracks.

"Unless we get lucky," Beth counters, directing Tipan to close the map.

"Time for a walk?" Tipan asks as we gather around.

"Definitely. But first," Beth halts for a moment, turning in place. "Where'd we put those sausages?"

After polishing off the remaining sausages, we make our way north through the settlement. While the others are keeping their eyes open, I'm resolved to improve my invisibility spell. Instead of trying to get the entire field to function at once, I've reduced the size. I'm sure that if I can get it to work on my hand, it'll be relatively simple to scale it up from there.

While I'm playing with the evasive invisibility spell, the others continue ogling the surroundings while commenting on the varied art which draws my attention. In a way, the engraved building art reminds me of home. There are many places in Vancouver where instead of a blank side of a building, the owners hired artists to do full wall murals. My personal favourite was just off of Commercial Drive, a wall painted with sunshine, reminding me that even on the cloudiest days, the sun was shining somewhere. In the middle of that sunshine, a figure could be seen walking into the sun, passing out of sight as they move towards the light.

Not that I made it out that way often.

Returning my attention to my spell, I realize my hand is invisible. It even stays this way when I flex it. Playing through my recent memories, I discover it happened when I was thinking about the person being blurred by the sun. Focusing on the feeling, I fix it in my mind before expanding the field to encapsulate me once more, a familiar prompt finally popping up.

"Spell discovered: Lesser Invisibility. Would you like to add this spell to your preferred spells?"

"Skill unlocked: Stealth (1)"

Confirming the prompt, the spell goes into my free twilight spell slot. Three days working on my spell but it took reflecting on old art to push me over the edge. Still better than what I went through to unlock twilight.

I'm still poking and prodding my invisible limbs when Josh asks, "Uhm, where'd Lex go?"

"What do you mean?" Beth asks, turning to look back right as I pop out of invisibility.

"Sorry," I apologize, reappearing next to Josh, causing him to stumble several steps away from me, nearly tripping over Demo's tails.

Once he pulls his tails clear, Demo's laughter rings out, a deep, pleasant sound while I repeatedly apologize to Josh again.

"Well, Alexis. Congratulations. It's good to see you've finally succeeded." Roberts beaming smile brings me out of my slumped posture, reminding me that I'd been responsible this time. Everyone had been informed I was working on an invisibility spell a couple of days ago. They'd even seen my imperfect attempts that only worked if I didn't move.

Doesn't mean I didn't startle Josh. Which makes me think of how useful this is going to be when Rufka gets back. I almost start cackling when the thought crosses my mind, but I rein myself in. I've already put Josh through enough torture in the last few minutes.

"Excellent timing kid. There's going to be lots of opportunities to put your new spell to work today. Now, show me what you did. And explain everything you can," Beth directs as she moves next to me. Then after receiving an elbow from Josh, she adds, "please."

Raising an eyebrow at Josh, I chuckle, then start taking Beth through my process. After a few minutes, she's able to replicate the effect using Umbra.

"This is perfect. Maybe we'll be able to do more than just stroll around their barracks," Beth enthuses as we walk quietly behind the others. At Josh's suggestion. He said it was less likely for them to run into us this way, but I can't help but think he's worried about being startled again.

"I imagine there must be spells that'll nullify our advantage. For example, I can still detect you with my class ability," I counter. I'm not really surprised at how quickly Beth picked up invisibility, considering she can become a copy of any K'tharn she's seen and her already formidable camouflage was already nearly invisible. Full invisibility was a minor step for her at this point.

What's more impressive is that a moment later she disappears from my IFF sense as well. She's completely gone. When I poke the spot she should be in, I feel her hand wrap around my wrist, but there's no other sign she's still there. There isn't even any sound as she waves my hand back and forth.

"Uh. Can I have my hand back?"

There's no answer, Beth poking herself with my hand instead. A second later my hand comes free. I'm standing in the street not moving, worried I'll lose Beth if I move.

Half a minute later, Beth reappears. "So, you can't hear me when I talk. That's good to know. Can you try your comms thing when I go invisible again?"

"Sure," I reply, Beth, disappearing from sight immediately.

Establishing the connection requires using the old method of linking through our party interface, my IFF still blocked. A second later, I feel the connection form.

"Go ahead Beth," I prompt her.

"Testing. Testing. Pineapple."

"Pineapple?" I can't help but ask.

"Good. You're able to hear me through your comms. Now, let's disappear and catch up to the others."

Inspired by Beth, I delay going invisible for a second, "just a second. I want to see if I can muffle sound too."

Beth accedes, becoming visible, and more importantly audible, to let me know the results of my efforts. It takes me another five minutes to figure out how to use twilight to absorb any sound I generate. Interestingly, incorporating sound reduction reduces the ongoing cost of the spell. The upgraded version of the spell records itself as Average Invisibility. Average does sound better than lesser.

"Okay kid, let's join the others. But remember, full stealth."

Nodding, I activate invisibility then connect to Beth. Now that we're invisible, I wonder if I could get away with flying. Glancing over my shoulder at the tower rising high into the sky, I decide not to risk it. I do start cackling when I realize no one can hear me now.

Using IFF, I direct Beth towards the others, both of us moving at a low run. We stumble into each other twice, before Beth instructs me to hold her hand. We accidentally thwack each other a little when we first make the attempt. Beth ends up groping me slightly as she searches for my hand. I'm glad we're invisible as she can't see my burning cheeks once her hand finds mine.

"Sorry bout that kid. Still getting the hang of not being able to see my own limbs."

"Yep. Totally understand," I reply, choosing to move on instead of dwelling on it. And then we're jogging along, both invisible and silent.

"I wonder if we've walked past anyone else using magic like this?" I ponder while watching a group of K'tharn we're circling around.

"Good question. If we have, we wouldn't know, would we?"

"Not unless they bumped into us. Which makes me wonder. Is that the next step? Making it so you can't even be detected via touch?"

"At that point, it's more intangibility than invisibility isn't it? Besides, couldn't you do something like that by combining your teleport with your invisibility?"

If Beth wasn't pulling me forward by my hand I'd probably have stopped in my tracks at that moment. But not because of her comment.

Just ahead shimmering green scales reflect the morning sun. Asterix, Ivicka's dragon is staring down at the others who are standing a few steps ahead of us.

"Quest obtained: Investigate Ivicka's visit to Glimmering Sands. 0/1 investigations completed. Rewards: 1 Iron-rank Progression Point."

Watching the others back away from Asterix, it takes me a moment to realize Beth is still jogging towards the walled complex.

Crap. I'm not ready for this. Tugging on Beth's hand I get her to stop as I mumble, "One second."

Looking up at the dragon above us, I shake my head. Then grit myself for what I have to do.

With a grimace, I take a shot of moonshine.