A night passed and Noah and Mistral found themselves exhausted from their ordeal. Even Sal found himself to be sluggish and requiring a reprieve. However, morning came quickly and the three found themselves disturbed at sunrise bythe sound of hammering.

 Looking out, Grey and Talion were outside, building... or, rather, Talion was building and Grey watching intently. Talion was shirtless and remained scarred, likely beyond the help of magical healing, as the sun beat down on him.

 He was building tables and chairs, though it was not readily apparent where he got the wood and nails from. However, it was immediately apparent that Talion's craftsmanship favored function over form while Grey's was often the opposite.

 Soon there were three chairs and a table, all sturdy but plain. He then set to work carving a flat surface from stone, standing it upright as he began to carve formulae into it.

 All in all, it was not a quiet process... so sleeping beyond dawn became a difficult prospect.

Mistral and Noah had the means to spend a lot of extra time to vacation time. Eight days of work to a single night of sleep. With such Noah was extremely greedy when it came to using all that extra time rather than let it waste. Noah was unsure how things really sat as he had a tiny worry with how things went as of late. But instead of curled around her like normal Noah kissed Mistral to wake her up. With flesh and blood hands, old Noah style.

During the dream time Noah would have asked lots of questions on space magic as he was working on an Omni rote spell. It was a hyper fragile spell but one important so he could interact with Mistral as she deserved.

In typical Grey fashion, each of the living quarters in the amethyst palace was large enough to serve as a ballroom, and the furniture was just a touch over-large as well.  Mistral quietly retired to one of these chambers, set her wards, and then availed herself of a much-needed hot bath.  Afterward she dred off and went straight to the nanofiber bed, where she sank into a deep slumber.  Noah would find that the wards had been configured to permit his entry to Mistral's chamber, and when he came near she would curl close to him without speaking.  She was nowhere to be found in the realm of dreams that night.

Mistral awoke to a kiss, and opened bleary eyes to see Noah the man, rather than the dragon.  She checked the room for dragons, regarded him for a long several moments, then said, "You've updated a doppelgänger, have you?  Bien."  Mistral pulled Noah close, and so whiled away their morning.

Some time later, Mistral gazed up from the bed to the glow of sunlight filtered through amethyst.  She broke the silence to say, "You do not trust me."  She didn't phrase it as a question.  Mistral added, "I would not, either."

---

Later, Mistral crossed the vast plaza outside the geode palace to discover Talion laboring at furniture construction, of all things.  It was strange to see the inventor of sentient synthetic humans working such at such rustic craftsmanship, but she could understand the cathartic benefits of such work.  When Talion raised the flat stone and began the carve glyphs into it, Mistral remarked, "Bonjour.  What is this project?"  She went to Grey, whom she gave a brief stroke upon silvery hair, then asked, "Are you helping or distracting, mademoiselle?"

 Grey grinned enthusiastically and climbed up into Mistral's arms once she had woken up. "Helping!"

 Talion, for his part, wiped the sweat from his brow. It was hot on the island despite being late November. "Preparing a classroom, of sorts. I told you I'd answer all of your questions. It will likely be difficult without some visual aides."

 The dark circles under Talion's eyes revealed that he had not slept, despite having gone to bed.

OOC: still much posting between players to do before moving on to the Q&A part :P.

Noah contented the morning with Mistral and had the will to, if not the plans to burn the whole day with her. It was only in the lull did he grip from inside the spell causing it to pop so the real Noah could curled about her for their usual embrace. "Not a doppelganger. You have only ever been with me. I like you far too much to be intimate with you through remote control." when she spoke of trust he leaned in and whispered her real name into her ear. "I would have never given my name to a woman I do not trust. You would better use that armor for someone who would not make it his lifes work to get it off you." He rumbled that deep tone that was his preference. "I worry. I dont care to forget you or be forgotten by you. I'll be giving up my market stall... bigger and better things to spend my efforts on." he curled about and sighed as he curled a wing to block the light from them.

---

True form Noah trundled his way outside with grill from the ship. It would be who tuna steaks for breakfast outdoors today.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:14, Tue 01 Sept 2020.

Sal didn't normally benefit from rest, but something had changed within him, and it felt good. So good, in fact, that he slept, for the first time since Talion had given him what he had so long been denied: the ability to enjoy the Sun.

He woke to the sound of hammering, and went to see what was up. When he saw everyone together, he smiled and said, "Good morning, everyone. A wonderful place you've built for us here, Grey. Very comfortable. Very pretty."

Mistral was surprised when Noah suddenly transformed back into a dragon quite suddenly, and said, "I see.  A warning before making such a change in bed would be welcome.  Inopportune timing could be problématique."  She nonetheless curled comfortably against the smooth-scaled draconic form.  Noah's reply to her sharp-edged challenge was not entirely unexpected, knowing him as she did.  Mistral sighed, "You can be supportive to a nearly annoying extent at times, mon dragon.  I will not begrudge you to tell me when I've been une connasse."  She rested her head on him and said, "Trading away a memory that has only brought pain seemed a bargain to moi, but I was wrong.  I was so concerned that the Fae would try to take more that I was unprepared when he took less instead.  He left the pain and regret, but took all else and I have doomed an innocent stranger to enslavement.  I do not even recall enough to know my reasons.  The gloves are novel, but not at all so useful as to be worth their cost.  They itch, even.  The trade was vexingly foolish of me."

Later, Mistral was only too pleased to answer Noah's questions on the space arcanum and demonstrate some of its more mind-bendingly esoteric concepts.  He got the information he sought, but it was perhaps more than he bargained for as one prone to portal-vertigo.  Eventually she had to ask, "I can see your scheming.  What is this Omni rote you are formulating?  Is it an improved articulation of the destroyer of fairies?"

---

Mistral greeted Sal with a demure wave when he arrived to investigate the hammering sound.  Grey had already clambered up as she so liked to do, and she didn't mind it.  Especially since she was light as a feather despite her having a direct conduit to at least a mountain's worth of condensed matter.  On the subject of the unexplained classroom classroom project, Mistral remarked, "Your dedication to education is admirable, mon ami, but answers can wait until you've rested.  Can we be of help?"

Sal offered, "I don't know much about magic runes, but I am well studied in calligraphy, and I'm not half-bad with my hands."

Noah smiled a wide smile, "Now why would I go and do something like that when it is so much more entertaining to do things like snatch you up into a cuddle puddle at the most inopportune times? I know some of it comes from culture, some of it is the nature of being a hidden person. But so long as you don't bring it home, else I'll make sure that icy armor is tossed away. Though I do promise you'll know when you've gone too far, as I expect the same."

"Though I think the French have a saying, 'Mieux vaut prévenir que guérir'. Better to prevent than heal." He kissed her brow and rumbled at her. "Give it time, we are both new to this."

He listed as she talked about the deal. "A lot of the fea are like that but not all of them. The kind ones generally want to be left alone and live their life that way." He had an eidetic memory. A fact she would be one of the few to know based on the link they normally had. "If I see that person I will bring it up. But the important thing is you know who the Fea is. If there is one talent you have with the fea, it is to make the regret dealing with you. And there is no law forbidding future interactions.

When it came to his scheming he produced a small portion of the rote "Bigger on the inside" and shoved a talon into it which was several magnitudes larger than the limb. "It is fragile. But the rote allows for giant things to come in tiny packages. I picture a bullet filled with hedge vines, or a knife filled with silver dust. Once broken they dump their contents." It was a tass construct that he some how hollowed out and bent what space she had taught him before so the space inside the tass was larger than the tass. It wasnt supposed to work but no one told him that.

---

Noah smiled as he put on a giant apron that said "Kiss the cook and offer gold as tribute." He was already slicing tuna steaks and setting out a nice mix of veg for the grill.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:00, Thu 03 Sept 2020.

 Talion nodded as he finished the last of the rustic chairs. They were sturdy, if plain. They had been sanded but not varnished.

 When he had finished, Grey exhaled an intricate latticework of fibers into three fancy blue embroidered cushions on top of the chairs. They were comfortable but looked slightly out of place sitting on such rustic chairs.

 Talion took a deep breath. "It is not wise for me to sleep outside of my mana reactor right now... and Thanksgiving is coming up. I missed my first Halloween with the children. I will not break another promise to them."

 Talion began to make marks on the board with another stone, writing with it as though it were chalk. "Calligraphy is a useful skill, especially with rune magic."

 He rubbed his tired face with his hand before pulling out what seemed to be a candy of sorts and handing it to Sal. "I sense something off about you today. I think the artificial blood you've been drinking has had a reaction with the mana in the Stairwell of the Gods. Eat this and tell me how it makes you feel. If it does what I think it will, your skill in Calligraphy may become extraordinarily useful to you soon."

 Once he'd handed the candy to Sal, he went back to writing on the chalkboard. His writing was thin and spidery but the level of detail to his calculations was above what most masters could achieve. It would have been incredibly obtuse and difficult to comprehend had the group not seen the Stairwell themselves.

 Now it made perfect sense. Magic was simple. People made it hard. The decay of reality made it hard... but magic was simple. It was as simple as plucking a string and singing along.

"Thank you," says Sal, accepting the candy. He looks at it for a moment, shrugs, and pops it in his mouth.