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

Tristan got back to the Queen’s Wood on foot, being handed cups of clearcool and clay plates of starberries by fairy dragons as he ate and drank his fill. He also spun his essence crucible in reverse, sucking in the Realm’s ambient power to refill his essence crucible.

The Matriarch glanced sideways at him as they reached the base of the enormous tree, “Tell me, if you would…what does your essence crucible look like?”

“Hmm?” Tristan replied as he finished chewing on a starberry, savoring the delicious, gooey texture as the slightly less ripe one had some tartness to it.

“When you enter your inner world, what does it look like?”

Tristan gulped down his bite, “I can visualize it, if that’s what you mean. I can close my eyes and imagine it.”

She frowned and shook her head, “Not what I meant. Let us go to the top boughs.” She went behind him, grabbed him around the chest, and her wings manifested from her back as she rocketed skyward. Tristan felt that giddy feeling in his chest and felt the fluttering in his stomach from the rapid ascent, and within moments they were standing atop the canopy near the study. She gestured to the four cushioned seats, and Tristan sat in one as she sat on the other side.

A bunch of fairy dragons clamored for the remaining two seats – shoving each other out of them or squeezing onto them as best they could. The Matriarch cleared her throat, and they quieted down. “When an essence crucible forms, it does not just create a spherical part-here-part-ethereal object in your torso. It creates an entire miniature world inside of that crucible. An inner world, as it is called.”

“So, when I close my eyes and visualize the crucible, I’m just visualizing the outside?”

She nodded, “That is correct. Now, I’m going to walk you through a meditative exercise. But before we do, this type of meditation can have side effects. First, whilst you are in this inner world, this mental mindscape, your senses are dulled here in reality. Someone could lightly push you, and you would not notice. A hard pinch, however? You would notice.” She raised two fingers, “Second, while you are in this inner realm, you may feel awake, alert, and refreshed – but your physical body is not actually resting.”

“I just can’t spend too long doing this,” Tristan stated. When The Matriarch nodded in confirmation, he continued, “And how will I be able to tell time?”

“It takes time and training. In your case, since you can always have one of my children along with you for your travels, you can skip that part of training. Instead, just tell them a duration, and have them pinch you out of it.” She raised a third finger to join the other two, “Third, this type of meditation will allow you to slowly, and I do mean slowly, grow your essence capacity.”

“It’s similar to spinning my crucible?”

“It is spinning your crucible. The difference is that you gain more essence capacity than just spinning your crucible. The downside is the trance you enter while doing it this way, versus spinning your crucible which can be done while doing any other activity.”

Tristan nodded, “All right. Let’s start.”

“Close your eyes.” He did so. “Good. Now, I want you to focus on breathing in, and with each breath in, I want it to be as deep as possible and focus on spinning your essence crucible. When you breathe out, you want to reverse the spin of your essence crucible. Reversing your breathing to the movement of essence.”

Tristan spun his essence crucible and felt the cool energy surging through his chest. He made sure to inhale deeply, and then on the exhalation he reversed the spin, drawing in ambient essence until he was full to bursting. He heard The Matriarch’s voice as he completed his third breathing cycle. “Good. Now, focus on visualizing that spherical crucible.”

Tristan envisioned and imagined the spherical shape in his mind. The silver orb with crisscrossing lines of icy blue cracks and sparkling with crimson and gold flecks. “I see it,” he whispered as he exhaled and kept focusing on the reverse spin.

“Now…envision yourself traveling inside of it. Going closer and closer, drawn in as you draw in essence and reverse the spin.”

Tristan did as she instructed, and he could feel himself almost being sucked into his essence crucible. He lost all sense of awareness of his body, but saw…himself, dressed in his armor, standing in a massive, snowy field. There were sparkles of glittering white snow – no, silver snow – falling all around him. Flecks of bright blue, gold, and crimson flitted down among the snowy dunes.

He took a deep breath and felt the crisp air. The sky above him spun first in one direction, and then in another. I’m inside my essence crucible, he thought. There were no items of note in this space, except for the single tree that stood erect in the center of the snowy field. It looked to be a miniature version of the Queen’s Wood that was the size of an apple tree. He walked through the snow with ease, pushing his legs through the powdery substance as he got closer.

Running his fingers along the tree, he could feel the life within it. Almost like a heartbeat. Wait…no, it is my heartbeat. He put a hand on his chest and felt the two beating in time with each other. This is wild.

Then, he spotted something that was out of the ordinary – well, as ordinary as this space was. A portion of the essence crucible’s outer edge bulged inward slightly. He walked over to it and saw that the bulge was like a dent in armor. I wonder if I can hammer this out? As he thought that, a wooden maul manifested in his hands. Oh, well, that simplifies things.

He pulled his arm back and swung. He could feel a resonance, a ringing inside of his head. And his torso hurt like someone had punched him. But the indent was fixed and the sphere…grew slightly. The tree to his side grew ever-so-slightly. The snowfall increased just a little.

He felt a hard pinch on his arm, “Ouch!” he shouted. And his awareness returned to him. He gasped, and almost fell out of his chair as he regained control of his body and his surroundings.

The Matriarch was standing several feet away, and she rushed over, grabbing the fairy dragon that Tristan now saw had been partially frozen in a cube of ice. “Oh, damnit, Jeremy!” She ran him over to the cooking station and dunked him into a pot of liquified clearcool.

Tristan got up and made to move over, but he saw that everything on that external platform was coated in ice. Including the spell primers. But the fairy dragon – this Jeremy’s – well-being was more important. He rushed over to The Matriarch, “What happened?”

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

She huffed and looked at him as the fairy dragon began to get thawed out and wiggle around a bit. “I underestimated you.”

“How?”

“I thought…No, I felt that you had a strong essence crucible. High-quality, effectively. The only time I’ve ever felt power like what you just exerted – being able to freeze an entire area just by meditating…none since the first Winterbloom Elf was capable of that.”

Tristan felt incredibly small at that moment. As if he was just shoved into the shoes of someone much larger and he was unable to move about because of it. “It’s because I was the first Elf here in so long, right?”

She nodded and smiled as Jeremy fully thawed out and began wiggling his wings around. She pulled him out of the bubbling water and threw him up into the air a few times, tossing him in little spins as the watery clearcool splashed around. He was quite floofy and grumbled before flying off mid-spin-throw.

“Sorry!” Tristan shouted after him.

The Matriarch looked at Tristan and brushed some strands of hair behind his ear, “You are correct. I knew that the realm’s imbuement of you with essence would result in a strong essence crucible…but this is beyond anything I could have imagined. Honestly? With enough training to improve your capacity? You could surpass the first Lady Winterbloom.”

Tristan frowned, “But I don’t have enough essence capacity to even use Second Order spells.”

“Essence capacity does not equate to quality. Essence crucibles have various…well, I guess the best way to describe it…have you ever been to a tournament? Where warriors evaluate rankings in competition?”

Tristan nodded, “Yes, we went to a few melees and jousts.”

“And what reward did the officiants give?”

“Normally jewelry.”

“Mhmm. And what are the most valuable at those competitions?”

“The same as the money system. Gold, electrum, silver, and then copper for those who competed but did not place in the top three.”

“Right. Now, imagine that your essence crucible has a ‘place’. A rarity based upon how well they perform. You might not have a large essence capacity, but your crucible is as rare as they come; rivaling that of my creator, if not possibly capable of surpassing it.”

Tristan let out a deep exhale, “That is… a lot to take in.” He looked over to the study area, where fairy dragons were playing on the smooth, icy surfaces as if they were slides. It brought a little chuckle to his voice as he kept speaking. “Well then. Let’s rescue those primers so they aren’t ruined.”

The Matriarch and the fairy dragons assisted Tristan in chipping the ice from the various surfaces and they were able to rescue the cushions and all the books. The Astrologer’s Glass would be fine, as it was made of metal and glass. After relocating the items away, the fairy dragons kept playing on the slick surface, and Tristan rejoined The Matriarch over next to the crafting stations.

She began pointing out the three covered jars of substances and a huge barrel made of some type of hardened clay. “I have a large amount of the clearcool potion ready to be turned into an elixir. And the three jars have the panacea, healing, and essence potions ready as well.”

Tristan recalled the words she had instructed him in as he walked over to the enormous barrel first. Moving the large leaf off the top, he reached his arm down and began swirling with his finger as he spun his essence crucible. He felt the refreshing breeze throughout his body and willed the essence into his fingertip. “Lisää tämän liuoksen luontaisia ominaisuuksia. Anna tälle aineelle minun voimani. Tuo esiin näiden ainesosien todellinen luonne.” (Increase the inherent qualities of this solution. Imbue this substance with my power. Bring out the true nature of these ingredients).

The clearcool elixir surged with a brilliant, silver-white light before it faded. Almost instantly, a swarm of fairy dragons came over and formed a small assembly line. One of them used a ladle to reach down into the barrel and pull up the liquid, that was then put into the small, clay jars for single-dose sizes, covered with a leaf, and then tied tight with twine before being put aside.

“Efficient,” Tristan observed.

The Matriarch nodded, “My children are quite skilled at teamwork.”

Tristan went to the three different potions and performed the same spell; only having to pause to reverse spin his essence crucible and refill a single time. The fairy dragons worked their way down the line, and by the time they had finished bottling the various elixirs, he had quite a large supply. Seventy clearcool elixirs, ten healing elixirs of lesser quality thanks to the lesser quality herbs, ten essence elixirs of the lesser quality, and five of the panacea elixirs.

Tristan went and grabbed the potion manual, flipping through it to the entry of each different item – save for the clearcool elixirs, which were Fey Realm specific and as far as Tristan knew, not listed anywhere.

> Panacea Elixir – this potent curative is based upon the panacea potion, which is a simple ‘all round’ remedy for many common ills (coughs, shakes, fever). However, the elixir version, unlike its potion counterpart that acts in a slow, measured fashion, performs its task almost instantly. And poisons or diseases that are not too-far along can be cleansed.

> Healing Elixir – a simple healing potion is used for minor aches and pains, and could help cuts, scrapes, or bruises heal slightly more rapidly. The elixir version comes in various potencies depending on the quality of the herbs utilized.

>

> Minor – cuts and bruises mend faster. Other injury healing is accelerated slightly.

>

> Lesser – as the minor version, but all injury recovery is accelerated even more.

>

> Greater – as the lesser version, but with even faster recovery.

>

> Supreme – the pinnacle of alchemical healing; these potent elixirs will almost-instantly heal any injury that is not a mortal wound.

> Essence Elixir – used by essence-weavers. The essence potion is a simple boost to natural essence regeneration rate. The elixir version comes in various potencies depending on the quality of the herbs utilized, and provide a more rapid regeneration rate.

>

> Minor – increases essence regeneration rate by (approximately) ten percent.

>

> Lesser – increases essence regeneration rate by (approximately) thirty percent.

>

> Greater – increases essence regeneration rate by (approximately) sixty percent.

>

> Supreme – increases essence regeneration rate by (approximately) one-hundred percent.

Tristan put the book down and looked at small, wooden crates with separate cubby holes for the elixirs. One of the fairy dragons was using some colored dyes to indicate which elixir was which by adding the coloration to the leaf tightly bound on top. The Matriarch chuckled and looked at Tristan, “Well done. It is late. I would recommend resting.”

Tristan nodded, “Thank you for everything. Tomorrow, we get into a routine.”

She raised an eyebrow inquisitively, “Oh? Do tell.”

“In the morning, I would request that you train me further with the maul for a few hours. Then, melee with sword and maul while I focus on interweaving essence-weaving – just ice elementalism for now – for a few hours. After, we will do meditation in that clearing – I don’t think I need you present for that outside of the first few days to get into the habit.”

She nodded, “And then?”

“I will head back here, read the primers, practice some new spells…and infuse my last few items with artifice that are high enough quality that they can take it.” He glanced over at the gear nearby as he slowly took off his armor and unbelted his sword. “I’ve got that dagger, the sheath maybe, and the greatbow.”

“We should get you one of the more finely crafted mauls as well.”

Tristan nodded, “I think having it for fighting other people is going to be valuable.” He smiled, “I’ve always been a fan of routine.”

The Matriarch laughed lightly, “Well, that is definitely your Human side talking somewhere deep within you. Most Elves do not stick to a routine. They are whimsical, just like us fairy dragons.”

Tristan chuckled and shook his head, “Maybe it’s just because I was raised by my grandfather who had a strict training and schooling routine for me.”

The Matriarch nodded, “Likely, absolutely a likely possibility.”

“And…in four days, I have to go back to the Mortal Realm to speak with Obadai Grimtome, and meet back up with Felicity.”

“Before you do leave, make sure you try the next layer of the vault.”

Tristan nodded and headed down the spire to take a bath and go to sleep, “Will do. Thank you, again.”

“I live to serve.”