Once I’d shut the door behind me, I pushed my trunk up against it.

Hopefully that’ll be enough to put a stop to any more sleepy-time field trips.

Forcing my focus as far away from thoughts of naked kobolds as I could, I assessed my new bedroom. It was very much like the one I’d stayed in the previous night. But taking a closer look around, my eyes caught on something dark bundled up at the center of my bed scoop. I actually jumped a bit—initially taking it for some kind of creature. Sniffing at the air, I was unsure of what to make of the mixture of scent impressions it gave off. But something in there smelled delicious.

Going over to sit on my bed, I poked at the bundle. It was a soft animal hide, placed top-side down. Nothing happened. Hoping it wasn’t some kind of trap or—I don’t know—Pathmaker assassination attempt, I pinched the velvety leather and flipped it aside. Blinking down at the seemingly random assortment of objects beneath it, I plucked up the source of the wonderful scent. It was a corked bottle full of something red, purple and goopy looking. A little scrap of paper attached to a cord around its neck read “Hotfruit sauce. Use with caution. -Asho.”

I stared at that little slip of paper for entirely too long.

These are welcome gifts. These are lizard-dog people living on the edge of a dead volcano and they’ve left me a…a gift basket.

I hadn’t gotten a whole lot of gifts, back when I was a human.

My eyes watering with emotion for what felt like the thousandth time in the past few days, I moved on to examine a mug with a pearly blue glaze and a note from Jenner.

“For when you need to put out the fruit sauce fire.”

Then there was a necklace from Imbris—black and gray cords intricately braided, with a small moonstone at the center. “I don’t know who you are or what you look like yet, but grayscale goes with everything,” read her note in the most beautifully wild handwriting I had ever seen.

I tied it on immediately, grinning, as I picked up the last item…a scrap of paper.

“The hide is from me,” it read. “This animal lived well and died a good and natural death. Wear it, display it, do what you want with it. Only show respect for it in the memory of the creature it came from, or else I am taking it back. -Vyr.”

Smirking a bit at that, I realized I actually kind of liked the grumpy Onyx healer, despite her deep and apparent dislike of me. And not only because she smelled absolutely devourable.

Focus, Zia. Self control.

Shaking my head as if that would somehow banish lewd thoughts of the lady skyborn, I ran my hand over the hide. It was covered in smooth black scales with a white dappling like a spread of stars, and it was beautiful. And it smelled a bit like her, still, too…yet somehow I resisted the urge to bury my face in it.

Knowing there was no chance of my getting any sleep until I was exhausted beyond all other options, I decided I might as well start unpacking. As all I really had were open shelves and a desk, though, the clothes and what I suspected were toiletries would all be staying in my trunk. And the suspicious pickle-thing, too. But I took out the books, putting most on the shelves near my desk nook before taking a few of them to my bedside for priority reading.

I’d intended that reading to be later, after I was done unpacking. But as I went to set down the book about Gems, the call of information was too much for me. I dropped down onto the moss with it instead, deciding to scan it for a quick run-down of all the Gem types and their associated abilities before getting back to what I’d initially set out to do. Yet I’m pretty sure at least an hour passed, probably more, as I lost myself to learning and confirmed what I had already suspected: if given the choice of my own Gem with full knowledge of all of the other options, I’d have chosen Opal. I got lucky, in that way at least.

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Diamonds were pretty cool, if a bit standard, magic system-wise. Their Abilities mostly involved the manipulation of the so-called “Old Tradition Elements,” stone, air, water, fire, and something which translated mostly as “spark,” but which seemed to mean electricity, among other things. Sapphires could enhance their own mental capabilities to the point of practically becoming living supercomputers. Topazes were beings of charisma and glamour, not directly manipulating the minds and emotions of others but most definitely influencing them through sheer force of charm. It seemed a fine line to me.

Onyxes were…a bit hard to understand. Their domains were time and space, and the applications of this seemed limited more by the Onyx’s own imagination and power level than anything else. In fact, though the author of the book remained largely neutral throughout the work, they did note that there were few beings with more destructive potential than a clever Onyx and a reckless Opal.

Jade powers were all about spirits and dreaming, which seemed to be intrinsically linked concepts as far as kobolds were concerned. And Garnets had their familiars and their ability to share the senses of and even control other animals. I’d already known that, but what I hadn’t known was that truly powerful Garnets could control entire hordes of beasts, all at once. See and sense the world from multiple viewpoints in multiple locations, all from great distances and simultaneously.

Then there were Jaspers, who possessed the blessing of enhanced body modification. Able to make themselves substantially stronger than nature might otherwise allow—as Thors had so magnificently displayed—they could also grow armor and weapons that were as much extensions of themselves as their own hands. Some subtypes could even heal themselves and regenerate body parts.

I didn’t allow myself to read the entirety of the Opal section, only scanning and catching bits of what I already knew. I’d save the proper read-through for when I was fully alert and focused, rather than getting sucked into it for hours only to forget a third of it because I was thinking about hot dragon people taking a bath together.

Putting the book down at last, I returned to my open trunk and set to work finding shelf-spots for all the mysterious sigil-covered devices Other Zia had left me, taking reverential care with each and every one of them…except the pickle rock. I would test my theories as to their various functions later.

And then, when all of that was done and my shelves were quite nearly filled, I came to it. The little wrapped-up bundle that I’d never gotten around to in my initial inventory. Pulling it from the bottom of the trunk, I carefully unfolded its black silk wrapping.

Inside was a smooth, cloudily translucent stone attached to a leather strap. I’d have taken it for a necklace, but compared to all the other kobold finery I’d seen, it seemed far too plain for one. As I held the pendant, testing the weight and feel of it in my palm, I sensed a sort of absence within it. Like a kobold or sigil when it’s out of mana. But that didn’t make sense, because it had no sigil.

Or does it?

I held the thing close to my face, squinting at what I’d initially taken for shallow scratch marks on its surface.

The impressions the etchings gave off were mostly of the concepts of connection and voices. From that, I realized what it must be. But it had no Gem chips, and from all the information I’d been able to piece together so far, that should mean that it couldn’t hold any mana, and therefore wouldn’t work. But why the sense of emptiness if there’s nothing to fill?

Curious, I nudged at the thing with my own overflowing reserves. To my shock, it opened up to my power, filled with it. Practically thrummed with it. I held it in both my palms, staring at it as I waited for something to happen. Nothing did.

I squeezed it, held it close to my mouth.

“Call Erek,” I said, experimentally. And still nothing happened.

Huffing in disappointment but too tired to mess with it any further, I put the thing back in my trunk. Not long after, I finally went to bed, dealt with my urges, and found my way into sleep.

It was still dark out when I awoke, and raining softly. Something was trilling, like a very weird bird, over and over again. Something inside my room. Telling myself that if I was under attack, I’d probably be either hurting or dead by now, I struggled to my feet nonetheless. Then, remembering the stone, I followed the source of the sound over to my trunk where I’d pushed it up against the door, fur prickling in mingled anticipation and annoyance.

Sure enough, it was the cloudy stone. Only it had a luminous blue marking on it now, one I was pretty sure I recognized from somewhere. I reached down to pick it up…and dropped it again immediately as the trilling ceased and a voice very much like my own replaced it.

“Zia? Zia, are you there?”

I gripped the rim of my open trunk, staring down at the call-stone.

“What…who are you? What’s happening?”

The voice laughed.

“It’s me, Zi. It’s Seri.”