After making some excuses to the others, Gaius and Isabelle walked out of the Library in high spirits, ready to find some snowpyres. Instead of Nexus’ guidance, Isabelle was going to use the Twilight Observer to locate some of them…partially because the Map of Stars was damaged or something; Nexus was rather evasive when it came to that topic.

“It’s cold,” Isabelle murmured.

“The Library of Ancients has some form of heating, but this does remind me of the first time I spotted you,” said Gaius. “The Assembly, the East and the West had sent some of their people here, and you were apparently a scout or something. I figured that you were someone important, since there were some people with you, and then decided to abduct you for intelligence.”

“I don’t remember that part all that well, though,” Isabelle replied, shivering.

“Well, if I remember correctly, you were in the middle of hypothermia or something,” Gaius replied. “And then I had to make a fire to keep you warm, and then assign someone to watch over you.”

He paused. “I must be getting old.”

“Oh, come on.” Isabelle grabbed his hand. “Also, your hand feels really nice and warm. How are you not cold at all?”

“I’m using Climate Control—” Gaius paused. “Right. That’s just me thinking that I’m using Climate Control, no?”

Turning to her, Gaius tried to imagine the exact sensation he associated with Climate Control — an area in which one would always feel comfortably warm. A surprised yelp followed a few moments later, and his body shook back and forth as Isabelle gripped his shoulders.

“Next time, give me some warning before you do that! You scared me!” Isabelle fumed for a few moments, and then rubbed her own face. “Wow. I’m…warm. What did you do?”

“Well, I tried to imagine a bubble of warmth around you,” Gaius replied.

“Maintaining an area that’s nice and warm is qi isn’t all that hard, but…you aren’t concentrating now, are you?” Isabelle asked. “Is it like an Engine’s Ability?”

“It does require far less attention,” Gaius replied. “In fact, it’s…quite hands-off for me. Does it still work if you’re more than twenty metres away from me? Let’s give that a try.”

Nodding, Isabelle scooted away. A strange sorrow stirred in his gut as Isabelle left the twenty-metre radius, only for it to dissipate when she stepped back. Gaius couldn’t quite tell where that twenty-metre boundary was, but his instincts were telling him that Isabelle was now experimenting with that indistinct boundary.

After a while, she returned with an odd look on her face.

“What are the results?” Gaius asked.

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“That Climate Control thing stopped working at a certain distance, but it reactivated when I stepped back,” Isabelle reported. “So it activates when I’m within twenty metres, and stops when I’m not.”

“I could also feel some odd feeling when you left. Made me somewhat sad.” Gaius tried to dismiss the lingering remains of the inexplicable sorrow, before saying, “There’s probably other things I can try to gift you too.”

“Try it out, then!”

Rolling his eyes at her excitement, Gaius recalled the different experiences that some of his favourite Abilities had, and then tried to transfer it to Isabelle. Before long, a blade of qi was dancing around her, and a single gesture from her was enough to move cubes of air around.

Within this Domain of his, Gaius could finally understand what an Engine’s Ability truly was. He had been paying attention to the phenomena that occurred when he bestowed what was probably a blessing of sorts onto Isabelle; it was actually a sigil formed by the grey energy within him.

“It’s a sigil,” said Gaius.

“What sigil?” Isabelle, who was playing around with her own version of the Dragoon, asked.

“Those Abilities you’re able to wield now.” With a surge of his will, the world Gaius could see changed. The faint grey sigils on her two hands were now glowing in the world of mist…and the mist, it would seem, was the ambient energy of the world. “There’s one on your left hand, and one on your right.”

With another thought, Gaius reappeared twenty metres away from her. The glowing specks of light on her hand dimmed out, lighting up a moment later as Gaius blinked back to her side. It was like one of those Arts, sigils carved onto the screen, just that these sigils were more than just skin-deep.

“Seems like that’s indeed the case,” said Gaius.

“Okay, but how are you seeing all that?” Isabelle asked.

Gaius mulled over her words and looked around. The world, in his current vision, was full of grey mist. Isabelle looked like a person made up of fog, one that replicated her body in full detail; it was as if she wasn’t wearing any clothes—

“OW!”

Gaius returned his vision to normal and rubbed his head. “What was that for?”

“You were staring intensely at my…” She turned away. “Pervert.”

“But we’re way past that stage now!”

“That’s irrelevant and you know it!” She folded her arms, and lowered her voice. “And besides, for a moment, it was as if you couldn’t see me…the me now. I-I don’t know how to put it, but it was as if you didn’t recognise me for who I am.”

Gaius looked away. “Sorry. I had adjusted my vision earlier on in order to identify the nature of what those sigils were. And when I looked at you, it was as if you were a person made out of energy. So…”

She shook her head. “I didn’t mean to. Are you hurt?”

“No, but yes.”

That oblique reply made her smile. “Come over here and let me hug you for a while.”

Rolling his eyes, Gaius scooped her up and took to the skies. For some reason, she was quite fond of such an action, although she also liked carrying him in her arms while flying around. It was one of those things that the two of them shared in common.

“Come to think of it,” said Gaius, “you’ve never seen me harvest snowpyres before, have you?”

“Those weird fellows with a skill and burning flames for eyes?” Isabelle asked. “Nope. What of them?”

“You haven’t?” Gaius asked. “Well, this might be a problem.”

“And why would that be?” Isabelle asked. “What, are you going to slice them up or something?”

“Around there, I guess.” Gaius swallowed. “Now that I’m here, I’m beginning to feel somewhat apprehensive. Yuck.”

“Yuck?”

Gaius glanced at the clueless Isabelle, and wondered if he should prepare a bag for her to puke in.