[Tell me more about these goblins you’ve been working with,] Apple asks.

It feels both weird and refreshing to be able to use telepathy with someone to whom it is second nature and has been using it for centuries. It’s starting to strain my Inspiration meter, though, as I have had few opportunities to have continuous back-and-forth conversations in the mind.

[They also have a reincarnator with no quests,] I tell her. [Name’s Milo, as he preferred to be called by his original name.]

[Hmm, not one I’ve heard of before, then. Did he ever tell you what his Soul attribute is?]

[37. Although I suppose it’s 38 now. He died and got immediately incarnated again.]

[That low?] Apple seems surprised. [There has to be some reason why he’s been such an unpopular reincarnation target.]

[I thought my having a Soul attribute over 5 million was unusual and ridiculous.]

[Mine is around 300,000,] Apple replies. [I have inferred that… the universe is old. Really, really old. We’ve all been in this cycle for eons. You know how the system tells you that it’s the Age of the Green Fox? Ages are 10,000 years long. There was an Age of the Azure Fox before this one, and the Indigo Fox before that. I don’t know how many colored animals the universe has gone through.]

[How many reincarnators from Earth are there?] I wonder.

[I don’t know. Anyone who sincerely believed in an afterlife and wanted to go there already went there. The rest us are still here.]

[So… is this hell?] I have to ask.

Apple gives a mental shrug. [You could probably consider it that, but it’s a hell with no Jehovah’s Witnesses.]

[Trade-offs, I suppose.]

[I want to meet this Milo and have a chat with him. How did you even meet him?]

[We were running the Hedge Maze and I was retrieving a chest from a hidden room only someone very small could get into when the rest of my party was kidnapped by goblins. Uncle Hawk was taken to their village and Milo tried to sacrifice him and failed to injure him because Uncle Hawk is Heroic and Milo was a small child with a stone knife.]

[And… this led you to helping him instead of killing him? How? Why?]

[I promised I’d help him rank up and improve his village’s situation if he let Uncle Hawk go. So we negotiated trade agreements and I taught his goblins about masonry and pottery. He has expressed a hope that his goblins will eventually have luxury resorts and a preference to accomplishing that through business rather than violence.]

[That’s good to hear,] Apple thinks. [Evil capitalist business empires are less annoying than evil necromantic empires. You said his village was near the Hedge Maze? We can pop over there tomorrow. The Prydwen can get us there in no time.]

[Sounds good. I should get to bed. It’s getting dark and my Inspiration is running low and if I drink anymore tea my bladder will burst.]

Apple chuckles, nods, and shoos me off to sleep.

You have conducted a conversation with a Legendary psychic. Your Clairvoyance (Telepathy) skill has increased to level 3.

----------------------------------------

The next morning, dark clouds are blotting out the skymotes, and the ground is drenched. It’s not actively pouring at the moment, so we make our way across the village square before it starts up again. We make it on board just as it’s starting to sprinkle. I’m not about to go inside and miss the feeling of being out on deck on my first skyship flight, though.

I’ve only been on a skyship once before, and it didn’t actually go anywhere. I’m practically vibrating with anticipation over actually getting a chance to have a good look at Apple’s ship and fly on it, even if we won’t be leaving Tempest Domain.

I watch the view of the Hearth quickly recede behind us. The apple orchards that seem so vast when walking through them on foot are just a patch of green against the surrounding terrain. The weather does nothing to dampen my spirits even if the rest of me is dampened. The rain of late winter is chilly but I don’t care.

Apple chuckles when she sees me standing at the raiing gleefully watching the countryside whoosh by. [The trip won’t be long but you don’t need to stand in the rain the whole time.]

[Mom can dry me off with Sorcery when we get to the caves,] I protest.

It’s noisy enough out here in the wind and rain that telepathic contact is easier. No one on this ship is shouting anything, and yet everyone works flawlessly as a team. This would probably be eerier if I couldn’t see the vis zipping back and forth across the deck. The air practically sparkles to my third eye. It’s not any sort of mind control bond or anything, I can tell that even if this level of psychic power is beyond me at the moment. It doesn’t feel like anyone is being compelled to follow Apple’s orders, just that they immediately know what those orders are. They all just trust her completely. I think I’m learning things simply by watching her use her skills.

You have observed several high-level techniques being used. Your Clairvoyance (Vis Analysis) skill has increased to level 5.

[We’re heading for the Hedge Maze first,] Apple tells me. [Should be there in a few minutes. Then we’ll need to locate this cave. You mentioned a bridge. Is that nearby?]

[You don’t have some magical cave-detecting skill?] I ask.

[Sure, but finding the right one is another matter,] Apple sends. [There’s lots of caves, and they open and close on a whim. From what I’ve heard, this one may have only opened a few years ago shortly before you encountered it. Ah, there we are coming up on the Hedge Maze now.]

[Already!?] I exclaim.

The view of the Hedge Maze from overhead is… odd. It does indeed look like a maze of hedges and I can make out the pond we fished at that one time, but my [Aether Sense] is picking up on what I’m guessing is an optical illusion to conceal the true current layout of the maze. Or perhaps that there’s way more space inside the dungeon than outside. It looks smaller than I would have guessed, but we may just be very high up.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Apple laughs, and a strand of her black hair gets blown by the wind into her open mouth. [We try to stay below the sound barrier when in atmosphere,] she sends as she gathers her hair and ties it back. [When we’re out of a skymote’s atmosphere sheath, we usually take a standard cruising speed of 5000 kilometers per hour. We can push considerably faster than that in an emergency, but then it takes longer to decelerate and respond to unexpected conditions.]

I may have greatly underestimated the potential of skyships and I really shouldn’t have. However far below, the Hedge Maze is falling behind as the ship slightly more slowly tries to locate Skullburn Bridge.

[How large is the Crystalline Heavens?] I ask.

[It’s a perfect sphere 300 million kilometers in diameter,] Apple replies. [The Great Orb is 100 million kilometers in diameter, but beyond that, most of the area is densely packed with skymotes and their domains. Tiganna skymote has an atmosphere sheath 13,000 kilometers in diameter, which is fairly average. And yes, I have skills to measure things and retain information that I’m sure you’ll be picking up too.]

[I already have Search (Measurement) but I’m definitely going to need to learn the other. Why isn’t there a book with this sort of basic information?]

[You’re welcome to write one,] Apple replies. [Ah, look ahead. That stone bridge looks like it was made by goblins. Is that the one we’re looking for?]

[What makes you think it was made by goblins?] I wonder. [I designed it!]

[Clairvoyance (Psychometry). It has goblin vis all over it. And some human, too.]

Of course the Legendary Archmage can do psychometry on something a mile away.

The Prydwen doesn’t actually land near the bridge, as the trees are too dense for such a large vessel. Apple leads me to a smaller boat, and Anise and Grandma Laurel meet us there.

The landing craft is about the size of the sort of pleasure craft some rich jerk in California might keep parked on the street in front of their house 360 days a year blocking half the street. It brings the four of us down to land next to the bridge in moments, and we hop off on the ground.

I stop at the bridge and touch it, frowning thoughtfully and trying to see if I can detect the goblin Apple says is still clinging to it. I slowly realize that I’m looking at a third state of magic. If aether is gas and vis is liquid, then essence is solid. The psychic residue in this bridge is static, imprinted by the vis of the ones who made it just as much as their chisels left their marks.

You have successfully analyzed the essence of a Basic structure. Skill acquired: Clairvoyance (Psychometry)

Category Object Type Bridge Race Goblin, Human Materials Stone Rank Basic Durability 999/1000

[There we go,] I think. [Unlocked Clairvoyance (Psychometry). And the goblin cave is this way.]

[You got it just as soon as I mentioned it!?] Apple’s mental voice rings with undisguised surprise. [Most reincarnators I’ve encountered don’t manage it even if I try to walk them through it.]

[I do remember being a psychic. Is that unusual?]

[Your Soul attribute doesn’t go up until you’ve died once. Most reincarnators only remember their first life unless they lean heavily into Recollection. So I take it you’ve unlocked some memories from one of your succeeding lives.]

[I remember being on an interstellar spaceship scanning a black hole,] I tell her. [This is not something I would have imagined any Fizzlesnipe Industries being capable of, unless something crazy happened in later years. I think it might have been my second life, but I haven’t delved too deeply into it yet.]

We reach the cave and head inside. It has been widened a little from frequent use, and the walk through the mushroom caves is quiet but for the usual background noise of the In-Between’s wildlife. If I paid more attention, I might be able to identify the squeals and buzzes and howls in the distance.

We enter the village. Their watch saw us coming well in advance, and they’ve brought out Milo to meet us. A one-year-old goblin is about the equivalent of a three-year-old human, so he’s at least walking again already.

“Hello Drake, Anise, Laurel,” Milo says. “I see you’ve brought someone new. Might you introduce me?”

“This is Apple Corwen,” I say. “Legendary Archmage.”

“I see,” Milo says. “I thought your village only had two Legendaries. Not that two isn’t more than enough.”

“I haven’t been back to Tempest in a long time,” Apple says. “Drake tells me you’re a reincarnator.”

“Yes,” Milo says. “This sounds like a conversation we ought to have sitting down. Unless you’re here to kill us all or something. And you wouldn’t have bothered coming in to say hi if you were.”

“I will probably not be killing you today,” Apple says.

“That isn’t reassuring.”

Milo leads us over to the inn. Since our last visit, the lighting has been improved and the rough wooden chairs look like they were made from someone at Elite rank rather than Basic rank. They don’t wobble at all.

“Would you like to try the trilling grub cheese?” Milo offers. “Every batch has been better than the last.”

“Fantastic, I knew it would work!” I exclaim.

A goblin brings us a clay plate with chunks of fragrant pink cheese. None of my weird family members hesitate to try it. We already regularly eat giant bugs and monster cheese anyway. The texture is soft, similar to cream cheese, but the flavor is incredibly pungent.

“Oh, wow, this stuff will be amazing to dare drunk people to eat,” my mom says.

“You saw a Legendary traveler show up and your first thought was to offer her samples of your product,” Apple says with some amusement. “You’re definitely a businessman. I can send my quartermaster down later if you want to discuss business, but I’ll be leaving Tempest Domain in a week and I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

“Of course,” Milo says. “I’m certain that you did not come here to discuss cheese you did not know was here. You’ve come to discuss my being a reincarnator and you want to make sure I don’t become a dark lord or the like.”

“Yes, that,” Apple says. “We need to have a nice, long talk. And more importantly, I need to ask your core a few questions.”

“I don’t know if it will answer, but—” Milo begins.

Grubwick I will answer.

“Great,” Apple says. “I want to know if Milo was a purchase or a rental, why you chose him, and why you decided to give him no quests.”

Grubwick He was a purchase. He was inexpensive due to his high Defiance rating and multiple betrayals due to violent rejection of quests. It has been seventeen Ages since he last incarnated and his previous incarnation was responsible for the destruction of his own Hearth.

“I’m… sure I had my reasons,” Milo says.

Grubwick Of course. And that is why I offer no quests and impose no restrictions.

“And you just picked me because I was cheap.”

Grubwick I made a bet with Corwen that our incarnates could succeed without quests. Corwen believed its incarnate would be useless if unguided but was willing to see what would happen.

“I’m not sure which of us should be more insulted here,” Milo says.

“Wait a minute,” I say. “Are you telling me that for my core to ‘win’, I would need to be useless?”

Apple is laughing. “This could be very entertaining. It’s a pity I won’t be here to see it as I will need to be moving on soon.”

“Are you satisfied, Apple?” Milo asks.

Apple waves a hand. “Yeah. Don’t do genocide or the like and I won’t have to care.”