I found myself in the air above Borsdown the next day. The town itself looked no different but the expansion around the lake was steadily progressing. There were at least two dozen buildings and the beginnings of a wall. The node on the lake had a structure floating beneath it. A platform of logs had several metal bars fixed across it. They shone like gold but were most likely brass. Even from up here I could make out the beginnings of vis crystals growing on top of them. There were gaps aplenty for water to flow into the lake whenever enough accumulated on the raft.

I closed in on Vivi and Safrah’s house. The doorbell rang on prompting with a pulse of mana. I heard shuffling steps inside and moments later, the dwarf opened up.

“Yes? OH! Fio! Come in, come in!”

I huffed in amusement and stepped inside while connecting to her mind.

“It’s good to see you, Safrah.”

She nodded rapidly before calling into the house.

“Yes, it is! Hey, Vivi! Fio is here!”

I could make out the hint of steps in the living room above as we ascended the stairs. When I finally spotted my first real friend once more, I froze on the spot. Vivi sat on her haunches, tall and regal with a proud expression on her face. She was taller by a little bit, just about reaching Safrah’s height. Other than that, her fur had changed colouration. The spots had always formed something resembling lines going along the length of her flanks but now they were actual waves, no longer interrupted every few centimetres. The orange and yellow tones on her back were more of a blue-ish grey now, almost like steel. Her eyes were a deep navy blue, shining with gentleness. I silently identified her.

[Identify]

Species: Oceanlot (Adult)

Age: 12

Name: Vivi

Gender: female

Level: 47

She was wearing her supersensory matrix but I still made to use the new method Alex had shown me and integrated her into the communication centre. The golem was no longer listening in on everything unless I intentionally relayed it, though that was mostly due to the distance involved.

“Hello, friend!”, I sent, “You look great!”

“I am great! Evolution is the best!”

“But Oceanlot? That sounds like a bad joke.”

I snickered.

“Ha! It doesn’t matter what it’s called as long as it’s great!”

“That’s right, she’s a lot stronger now. Her water magic can do some insane things.”

“I suppose my own Species is simply called ‘Dark Winged owl’ so I can’t really complain.”

Vivi nodded sagely before walking up and nuzzling me.

“Now, tell us of your adventures!”, she demanded.

“Yes, please! I want to hear what you’ve been up to!”

And so I did. My friends listened attentively to my potentially slightly embellished retelling. Who could complain? My memory was simply not perfect. They oohed and aahed at just the right points and when I talked about the orks petrified inside their skin, Safrah had to excuse herself for the bathroom. The two of us ignored the sounds our superior hearing picked up.

“So, everything is settled now? No more fighting?”, Vivi asked.

“No more fighting. I’ll get the goblins set up for sustainability and then move on to explore other parts of the world. Well, there’s also Alex and the ork duo… I might have taken on a bit much.”

“You definitely have!”, Safrah scolded as she came back, lips wet from washing her mouth.

“For what it’s worth, I couldn’t have let any of those things go.”

“That’s why you’re a dwarf, Fio. You care.”

“Thank you. Now, what have you been up to?”

They spent the next few hours telling about their exploits of the last month. Safrah had worked with Riggard and the Thaumonomicon to build the crystal harvester now floating on the lake. It did just what it sounded like, encouraging the growth of vis crystals when positioned close to a node. It had the nice side effect of being a comfortable place for Vivi to drain on the node. No longer having to constantly swim made her progress at vis enrichment much easier. That had been the last two weeks for the ocelot. She had only evolved three days before and was still getting used to the new freedom her Species allowed with water vis.

Speaking of, I identified her again and took a closer look at the entry.

Oceanlot: This unique animal has evolved from a common ocelot under the strong influence of water vis. It is adapted to the water more than any other terrestrial Species to the point of fully fusing with any body of water larger than itself. It thrives especially in its home.

That sounded interesting. Would she be able to fuse with an ocean? What would that be like? When I asked, Vivi told me how she only really fused with a bubble of up to three metres in diameter. Anything past that was not part of her unless she moved there. It was a little confusing but she really seemed to enjoy her new ability. It was not really a Skill, like what allowed her to turn into water before. I wondered if my own Species also had things like that I simply had not found yet?

Then, Safrah left to get something from the workshop. When she came back down, she had a life-sized figure of me in her hands. Vivi proudly told me how she had finally worked out how to fix the steel feathers to the wood. I carefully walked around it, scanning every little detail. The pose was one of casual superiority with a smug but gentle look on its face. Many of the smaller details had been carved purely in wood and painted to look like steel. I truly enjoyed seeing the effort poured into it.

“What do you think?”, Vivi asked impatiently.

“It’s great! That took you a lot of effort. I really like how it turned out!”

Vivi purred, satisfied.

“I also think you should do one for Safrah and one for yourself as well.”

The purring cut off into a choked gasp.

“Myself? Mreeow…”

“Yes. The three of us and any other close friends we make should be eternalized by your claws!”

Safrah clapped her hands.

“I think that’s a great idea! I’ll help you out! You can use the mirror. Maybe make yourself from stone and carve it like your water form.”

Vivi narrowed her eyes, thinking about the possibilities.

“Yes… I think… that’s a good idea? I’ll do it!”

My facial feathers mirrored Safrah’s grin. I bumped her fist with a shadow tendril.

We turned back to small talk, the development of the town into a city, the new neighbours and plenty of other not so important things. The tea was really good. I should take my time to visit the factory I had tasked with making fruit tea. That had been two – or maybe three? - months ago.

At some point, I brought the discussion back to a more important topic.

“So, how are you progressing with thaumaturgy?”

Vivi rolled her eyes while Safrah made a so-so motion with her free hand.

“We haven’t really gotten any resources to start doing stuff. Other than brass, of course. The crystal harvester was the only thing we did in that vein and it has proved useful even for smaller nodes, accelerating the growth of crystals. I learned a little more about artificing the dwarven way from Master Riggard and have compared it to the Thaumonomicon. It’s likely that we’ll be able to progress rather quickly once the first delivery of materials comes in.”

I looked at Vivi. She tilted her head, ears flicking.

“I… wasn’t really interested in the last weeks. I’ll catch up with some of the things I’m interested in soon.”

“That’s fine. I have a gift for you two. I only have one, right now, but it’ll help you a lot with getting started.”

I opened my storage and pulled out the silverwood wand. I took care to handle it carefully even though the wood was rather strong after the infusion of magic. Vivi and Safrah’s eyes were glued to the soft glow of the white wood and the purple caps. The wand drew attention of those in the know even with no vis charged up at all.

“This is what I made from the silverwood you carved, Vivi. I have one for myself as well.”

“And… we can move nodes with this?”

I nodded.

“You need to have a deep enough understanding. I believe you should understand how to make one of these in theory before attempting to go for moving a node.”

“I see…”

“There are also interactions between nodes that are too close to one another without being stabilized. You should make sure to read up on that as well.”

The dwarf picked up the wand and carefully examined it.

“This is really something else… How? I don’t understand…”

“Is that made with infusion?”, Vivi asked.

“Yes. You’ll take a long time to get there, most likely. And I suggest you don’t rush. Otherwise, warp might claim your sanity.”

They looked at each other. A wry smile spread on Safrah’s face.

“Yeah… We noticed. A little bit. We’ll be careful.”

I raised my ear-tufts.

“Anything I should know about?”

“No. Don’t worry about it. It was temporary.”

I looked back and forth between them. There was a moment where I wanted to berate them on the dangers of warp and flux but it seemed they had learned their lesson.

“Alright. Just stay safe. This is the closest place I have to a home.”

“Awww!”, Safrah exclaimed and jumped forward, “That’s so cute of you!”

I had half a heart to dodge the hug but let her do her thing. Vivi also joined in on the snuggle session. We stood there for a good few minutes just enjoying each other’s presence until I got too uncomfortable and shifted away.

“Thanks but this much is enough.”

They both nodded with a huge grin on Safrah’s face and Vivi’s tail standing straight up and swaying slightly.

“You’re always welcome here!”

“Yes, always!”

I nodded.

“I’ll make sure to come by often and tell of my adventures. And I think I might just spend some time here after the other stuff is settled.”

“It’s a deal!”

We once more sunk into small talk, just enjoying ourselves. Tea was brewed and sipped and at some point, we got some food. I really enjoyed just having some time off. This was something I had to do regularly, lest I lose myself in my owl instincts.