“The first step is often the hardest,” Vess told him as they balanced atop a thin mountain peak. She stood next to him, balancing on a single foot while keeping her eyes closed and her breathing steady. “Empty your Mind.” “What, like literally?” Felix asked. Ten feet below the flat top of their mountain peak, the clouds hung thick as a carpet. So thick that he imagined he could walk across it if he wanted. Vess cracked open a single eye and smiled. “I am teaching you as I was taught. Empty all your wants and needs and urges from the pitcher of your Mind, leaving it hollow and unsoiled.” “Alright,” Felix said. “I am pretty good at Meditating.” Felix closed his eyes and lifted himself up on a single leg, copying her. His sense of balance, even in his projected form, was impeccable. Projecting himself into Vess’ core space had felt easier too, a task which required him to activate and maintain the use of several skills. His boot shifted in the dirt with a soft crunch, and he emptied his Mind. Or tried to, anyway. Breathe. Thoughts of the last day flitted through his head, of sailing across the Leviathan Depths. It had rained more often than not, providing them with more fresh water. The water of the sea had turned decidedly brackish and a touch acidic, despite being inland and away from the immense world ocean. Focus. Felix marshaled his Mind, emptying it once again. Yet it didn’t last. Thoughts oozed between his fingers, no matter his Willpower and Intent. Fish. Fishing. The sound of the water rushing past them. While they had plenty of food stores, that wouldn’t last them forever, and they had to focus on fishing to ensure their soldiers were fed. It was a challenging task at first. Felix had thought he’d have to dive into the water and find food for them, or something more drastic, but the Yttin that accompanied them were more than capable fisherman. Apparently while living in the desert, they had frequented the oases dotted around the Expanse. Felix was surprised there were even fish at all, considering the sea had been desert no less than a week ago. But just as the Yttin surprised him with their prowess, so too did the waters. The oases had clearly been divested of their denizens, forced to join the seas. There had been a lot of monsters in those oases, and the deep waters likely delved far deeper than Felix knew. Focus. Emptiness. A sense of quiet began to form as he chased the thoughts away. Felix hardened his Mind against further intrusions, but the problem wasn’t the outside, it was the frenetic energy within. His overactive Mind spewed out thoughts like water from a geyser, and he wrestled them back over and over…but streams slipped through. The image of standing atop the forecastle, wind streaming in his hair and spray on his face stole through his Mind. The fishing resolved, Felix had taken a selfish moment to enjoy simply being there, standing on a ship on an alien world. He had imagined he was simply traveling. Exploring. Felix wanted to do so much more of that. The place he found himself was including in that exploration. Vess’ core space. It was majestic and beautiful, a series of mountain peaks rising above the thick cloud cover, each peak a Skill while a chill, gale-force wind whipped all around them. At the center, somewhere, was a temple dedicated to the order of her mother, the Dragoons, containing the coolest looking core he’d seen: a dragon statue so realistic it seemed like it could leap to life at any second. Thoughts kept slipping. The emptiness wobbled. Are there less mountains than before? Had she consolidated some Skills? Felix’s eyes snapped open. Did I change her core too? Fully and finally, the emptiness fled. It popped like a bubble within his tumultuous Mind, and Felix let out an annoyed grunt. “This is harder than it should be.” “Emptying your Mind of needless thoughts requires more than stats to accomplish.” From beside him, Vess was standing with her arms cupped together and one leg entirely folded atop the other, which was extended straight down. “The greater the Temper, the harder this is to accomplish, as your Mind is stronger, faster, and more obstinate. Rigidity follows Tempering, and the flexibility required is easier for those with less established potency.” “Is it impossible for an Adept?” he asked. “Not impossible. I have seen those of higher advancements make changes to their core space visualizations. It is simply very hard, and requires more than brute force.” She opened a single eye. “It requires technique.” Felix tried not to grumble. He had perfect recall and a Mind that hadn’t failed him in a great many terrible situations. He could think up dozens of potential responses to threats in an instant…but completely quieting it? No. Apparently not. Not even when he Meditated did he accomplish that so much as relaxing himself. Maybe that’ll work. He sat down on the gritty summit peak of Vess’ visualized mountain, and folded his legs beneath him before engaging his Meditation Skill. Something has to. Yet a clutch of moments later, Felix groaned in frustration and fell backward until he was just staring up at more thick clouds. “Perhaps discussing the whole of the process will help?” Vess asked, grinning down at him. “Blergh.” She chuckled. “The goal is to clarify your core space and add as much detail as you are able. To do it, you must empty your Mind and then, in that emptiness, you visualize your core space. All of it that you can…held in the palm of your hand.” Vess put her own hand out and atop of it a tiny replica of cloud-covered mountains manifested. It looked odd. The temple at her center was too big comparatively. Yet before Felix could ask, she closed her hand, banishing the example. “From that point, you can begin making changes to the space as a whole. It is far easier that way than moving span by span across the breadth of it.” Vess helped Felix to his feet. “Will you try it again?” Felix did try it. Over and over. He was able to hold the emptiness for longer, perhaps a whole minute, but it always collapsed. Every. Single. Time. “Maybe this just isn’t for me,” he said into the chill breeze. He’d lied down again, and was watching the clouds swirl about in distant eddies. “Nonsense. You have slain Primordials and Urges. I do not think you will be defeated by some peace and quiet,” Vess chided him. “Peace and quiet aren’t for me either, I don’t think,” Felix said after a moment. “Not anymore.” She sat down next to him, graceful in her full armor as always. “More nonsense. You are a leader now, that is true, but that does not preclude you from peace. I think, instead, that you are so used to conflict that quiet feels dangerous.” “That’s…not wrong,” Felix admitted. He peered up at her. “Is that pulled from personal experience?” Vess frowned, just a touch. “More than a little. My childhood was perhaps more hectic than most. Training in war and tactics and governing has consumed much of my life.” Her smile emerged, a sun from behind clouds. “I learned to find my peace where and when I could.” “You’re better than me,” Felix said, still gazing into the sky. “Simply more experienced.” Vess leaned back, but looked forward. The wind howled and roared, whipping at their imagined clothes. “Finding one’s center was always a core tenet of the Dragoons.” Felix sat up, something finally clicking in his head. “Your core space. Where is your temple?” Vess didn’t answer him right away, only sighed before making a single, commanding sweep of her arm. In the distance, the cloud cover shifted and fell like a cascading waterfall. From the veil came a huge mountain peak, at least twice the size since the last time Felix had seen it, fully dominated by an immense temple that…was very different. “Are those dragon wings?” Felix asked. “I believe so, yes,” Vess said in quiet voice. Her temple, the core, had been altered from a sedate, almost monastic temple into what looked like the fossilized corpse of a massive dragon. Except instead of stone, it appeared to be made of gold and silver and gleaming blue gemstones, all of it among pillars and tiled roofs worked into skull and chest and pelvis. Its huge, bat-like wings were raised up and spread, cloth of gold spread across like faux membranes that rippled ceaselessly in the wind. “I fear the Dragoons would have a great deal to say about this,” she said in that same quiet tone. “How—was it the Link that did this?” Felix couldn’t believe it had enacted so much change in her. “Is this what you meant about your Skills changing?” “Yes. My core space is but a reflection of the changes I have undergone. More than a few Skills have…evolved.” “Into what?” Vess stabbed at the air and swiped at him, sending a blue screen rotating into Felix’s vision. Dragoon’s Footwork (Epic), Grace (Common), And Wall Run (Uncommon) Have Become On The Wing (Legendary)! Pierce The Sky (Rare) Has Become The Fang of Havoc (Legendary)! Dragon’s Descent (Rare) Has Become Draconic Stormfall (Legendary)! Wyrmling’s Call (Rare) Has Become Matriarch’s Lament (Legendary)! “Whoa,” was all Felix could manage. “Indeed. And that is not all, Felix.” This time Vess pointed upward, and at her command the overcast sky cleared to reveal a dark vault of stars. “Our newfound connection has changed so much.” The sky was dark, though the ground all around them was lit as if by daylight, and twinkling among the false stars were a familiar pair of lights. Too far to be moons or suns, but entirely too large to be a coincidence, Felix gawked at the red-gold and blue-white light. “Is that…are those my cores?” “From your description of them, I had guessed so.” Vess pushed a breath through her nose. “Felix. Why are your cores in my sky?” “Uh.” Felix reached out, questing with his Cardinal Flame toward the distant celestial bodies. It was a vast, incomprehensible distance, but it was there. He could feel them, a strange twin sensation in his gut and the senses of his Cardinal Flame. “The Link. The Tier IV Link I—we strengthened with the Primordial’s power. Did—did this happen to everyone?” “I do not know. Evie has remarked on her own Skills growing, and Harn progressed into Adept. Atar…well, he is changed certainly, and perhaps not only by that foul Urge, either.” “Well, I was planning on touching base with Atar soon anyway. I’ll make sure to talk to everyone else. If they’ve seen such dramatic changes to their Skills and core spaces, that might be a problem.” “I am unsure how they might have been affected. The Primordial’s power seemed to alter the substance of my Skills and not merely their function.” Vess shook her head. “My Skills were designed to fight all manner of monstrosities, but especially draconic foes. Now I find my Skills so closely aligned with them it is unnerving. On the Wing is the least of them. Matriarch’s Lament…” “Is there a problem with having dragon styled Skills?” “A great many problems, yes.” Vess suddenly had her partisan in hand and was leaning on it. Clutching at it. “Long ago, after the Ruin devastated the ancient empires and so much was Lost, the world was steeped in monsters. Even more so than now, the land and sky were dominated by beasts of incredible size and ferocity. Dragons were among the worst and most vicious, their following Type hordes sweeping entire Territories clean of mortal life. Humanity and the other Races were pushed to the brink of extinction. Bands of warriors fought out small spaces of peace among the savage violence, but those villages were almost always overrun. “That was when the Dusk Dragons came. “I do not know why, but they decided to help us. They trained an order of warriors to better fight off the hordes of monsters, gave them skills based upon their own techniques. These were the first dragoons.” “I thought you said your Skills were more touched by dragons now?” Felix asked. “They are. The skills passed down in my order carry the touch of the Dusk Dragons still, but they have been changed. Modified by generations until the Dragoons had perfected a weapon against the monsters, especially those in the sky. Eventually, even the Dusk Dragons turned on us, falling to infighting before a faction of them attacked our people. After their defeat, all draconic Types were considered anathema. The order grew, and our region was stabilized. The rest is history.” “If they betrayed your order, why is your core a giant statue of a Dusk Dragon?” Felix asked. “I was taught that just because a few chose poorly it does not invalidate the legacy of their mentorship. My mother taught me that. Others would disagree.” Vess stood, grinding the butt of her partisan into the stone as she faced the wide expanse of her changed core space. “That, however, is not a Dusk Dragon. They would be aghast to see this, which will undoubtedly happen. The ritual for final acceptance into the Dragoons will reveal all of…this.” During their talk more clouds had parted, the lumps of cottony mist falling to reveal the changed Skills. Felix drew in a sharp breath. They were no longer unified by her deft attention to detail, instead they were darker and craggier—looming peaks that suggested violence, rage, and a soft, crippling melancholy. “They feel…why do they feel so sad?” he asked. “I do not know,” she admitted. “There is a story baked into them, a tale that tingles at the edge of my Affinity.” “Or a memory,” Felix suggested. He could feel a tingling point of friction buried in those peaks. It was moving, shifting through the pattern of its song, but it was there. He pointed it out. “If you can capture that, hear it, then maybe you can figure out why this is happening.” “I know why it is happening, Felix. I simply wish for it to stop. If it continues, I—I fear I will never be a Dragoon.” The light of his dual cores flickered above them, and the looming mass of the dragon temple hung over them like a stormcloud, gold and shining in their weak light. Felix opened his mouth, raised a hand…and lowered it. What could he say? Without warning, the mountains shuddered and lurched. Felix gasped, turning just as a tsunami crested the furthest peaks and crashed into them both— —throwing them from their trance, and slamming the both of them back into awareness. “What the hell?” Felix shouted. The ship lurched again, dropping twenty feet as it rode down the trough of a massive wave. Someone screamed, clinging to the side, as Felix and Vess flailed slightly before landing atop the slickened chitin-deck. A swift Shadow Whip shot out, latching onto the Claw member’s failing grasp and pulling them to safety. Vess manifested ten silver Spears as another shuddering tremor hit the ship. “You! What is going on?” “Monsters! Starboard side!” From behind, the lashing tendrils of blue-black slime whipped up and onto the Manaship’s railing, hauling up the bulk of a massive, fish-like mass of scales and slime. A dozen pale, burning eyes stared in malicious rage, as crocodilian mouth opened wide and screamed.