Nuprima would be the first Lunar passage available from this point in the timeline, which provided an interesting opportunity for Jair’s advancement toward reclaiming his Mageblade class.

The mana-dense atmosphere of the frozen moon, the exact opposite of the Ghost Moon's mana-thin atmosphere, could let him skip a few steps in solidifying his manabody. Here, mana was so thick it naturally crystalized, forming in weeks what would take a human months to manufacture.

As a result, Nuprima exported the majority of the mana that powered cities on the planet below. Everything from the tiny shards you'd use for an Ignition construct to the massive crystals necessary to power a lunar passage, Nuprima was the prime source.

And while they were here, Jair also needed to collect a few things to convince Yast to help them with the breakin... and grabbing a few extra mana crystals for personal use wouldn’t be amiss.

Since Nuprima passages were so infrequent, a full month and then some between each, its transit platforms tended to be both expensive and booked in advance. Visiting Nuprima itself was far more difficult than Terluna or Zelura, even taking into account the ghost moon's particular economy.

Then there was the way its crystalline structures shifted and warped naturally over time. Any transit platform had a very real risk of ending up wedged into an unexpected abyss rather than properly planet-facing. Naturally, this further increased the cost of available slots should something happen the day of a passage.

There were good reasons Terluna was the standard for ordinary commerce, travel, visiting with relatives, and communicating with distant continents. Nuprima wasn’t cheap.

Nuprima's predominant color was white, its surface frozen solid, its atmosphere mana-thick but thin of air or water. Inhospitable in an entirely different way than Zelura.

None of the strange alien plantlife of Terluna, none of the warped mana-starved predators of Zelura, only mana that threatened to tear your manabody apart by sheer external pressure and the pervasive cold that even the strongest heating constructs barely kept at bay.

Yet that very danger was what made it so valuable.

Without Nuprima’s mana-dense resources, life could not function to its current standards. Constructs required massive amounts of mana compared to any other form of magic, but were also the fastest and most readily-available option.

Everything from coastline defence to the most casual modern conveniences required power - power Nuprima was uniquely suited to provide. Personal mana generation could never keep up with the power demands of even a small city grid, and the gap only widened with more heavily populated regions.

As a result, bulk mana crystal transit and caravans of raw materials took precedence during Nuprima passages. Cities and companies paid exorbitantly to claim a slot, providing essential supplies as well as vast quantities of currency to those who dared to remain between passages.

Mana harvesting could make you rich faster than anything else, and kill you just as easily.

Regardless of the danger, the reinforced domes of mana harvesting teams dominated Nuprima’s barely-habitable spaces. Expeditions into the less-survivable regions took place regularly, to further excavate the deep mines or trade with stormkin mountain keepers.

Nuprima’s harsh cold made it unpopular as a tourist spot, but there were still people willing to pay the unreasonable fees to tag along with a caravan. Those people mainly consisted of those like Jair looking to take advantage of its mana field density, or sightseers taking guided trips out to gaze in awe across the core abyss to the floating crystal mountains.

Even Jair had to admit the landscape could be breathtaking. Nuprima truly was beautiful, in a coldly impersonal way.

Unlike the settlement-sized domes on Zelura, Nuprima's domes were tight and closely compassed the buildings they protected. No point wasting heat on a huge bubble of empty air. The connecting corridors between domes were heated by constructs and fully sealed, but even then it was recommended to wear at least three layers to ward off the pervasive chill.

Going truly outside required as much at minimum, plus a sealed full-body suit and helmet to provide breathable air.

Fortunately, these sorts of people existing meant that Jair didn’t need to come prepared with custom clothing, and could simply buy sets of the enchanted protective suits for himself and Ran. Well, technically Ran was the one doing the buying, but the result was the same.

Despite their new thick clothing, Ran shivered as they stepped out of the first dome into the connecting passage to the second.

Jair slowed his steps, inhaling deeply as he felt the insane pressure against his manabody. Perfect. Just what he'd been missing.

"Hurry up, you don't want to freeze!"

“Give me a minute.” Jair stopped walking and closed his eyes, centering his concentration on his manabody. He pressed outward in uneven ridges even as the moon's pervasive atmosphere tried to crush it, deliberately leaving thin gaps as he reinforced the edges. Nuprima's raw mana rushed in to fill the openings, slicing deeper into him with a chilling inner pain he knew from experience would linger for weeks.

"Jair!"

“Not now.” He shook his head and took a deep breath, then repeated the process. Opening new gaps as he shifted his manabody, edges forming and shredding as he strained to integrate the raw power stabbing through him. He suppressed his body's natural instinct to reject the intrusive alien mana, accepting and integrating the power instead however sharp and cold. He'd been through far worse for less gain. A couple weeks of discomfort were a small price for over a month's progress.

Someone tugged on his arm and he shook them off, but the concentration was broken and his hold on the power slipped. One of his gaps slipped from his control and the power tore into him, nearly shearing his manabody in half before he grabbed hold of it with desperate intensity.

He stumbled forward into the protective dome, the pressure suddenly lessening within its defensive perimeter.

"Are you an idiot?" Ran hissed.

Jair fell to his knees, arms wrapped around his chest as though he could physically pull his manabody back together. Cold and blade-sharp wrongness tore through him in steady pulses as his manabody tried to handle the unexpected influx of power and failed to retain its integrity.

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Chances were it could recover on its own, but he wasn't going to leave it to chance. Jair re-centered himself and stitched the torn edges back together piece by agonizing piece. This was even harder than reintegrating after the unexpected reversion, since that had been a loss of control while this was more akin to a universal assault.

Jair persisted until he'd fully reformed his manabody, then painstakingly closed every gap he'd opened, sealing himself fully from external influence, holding a vast quantity of heavy mana within that shell.

When he returned his awareness to his physical body, Ran was sitting across from him and watching with a look of concern.

"Hello." Jair waved feebly, then squared his shoulders and rose to his feet. The continued icy pulse from his torn manabody, he relegated to the back of his mind and disregarded. If something changed, he'd pay attention, but the standard pain of forced integration could be tuned out safely.

"What was that?" Ran hissed. "Why'd you stop? Everyone warned us to keep moving, did something block you?"

"It was intentional. Probably should have warned you in advance. Not used to having to discuss plans ahead of time." He also wasn't used to having a manabody this fragile, two months of lost progress on cementing it was more damaging than he'd anticipated.

"So you planned to collapse in a twitching mess?"

"No, I planned to integrate additional mana density. It'll be a major boost toward unlocking Mageblade properly. The first time around I had to solidify it manually, but an influx of mana on this level will do the same thing faster."

"Then what was with the spasming fit thing?"

"Physical reactions." Jair waved it off. "Unimportant."

"You can't just tell me 'unimportant!'"

Jair exhaled slowly, gathering his patience. "I can assure you, this is nothing. I’ll be doing a lot of things that look dangerous or harmful, but unless we’re being actively attacked there’s a good chance I know what I’m doing.”

“Please warn me next time, at least?”

"Sure thing. Next stop, crystal mountain."

Jair started toward the transit platform, since they’d need to be on the other side of the core abyss to gain access to the mountains.

Ran didn’t even seem fazed by the price of the local transit, but he balked when he saw the dome ended well before they reached the mountains in question. "You want to go outside-outside? After just the tunnel did this to you?"

"I'll be fine. I've sealed up my manabody again, so it's going to be nothing like that. You'll be fine too. As long as you have a fully saturated manabody with proper bounding, you only need to refrain from breaking it. There'll be a sense of pressure and cold, but you can push it away easily enough. You probably felt it in the tunnel, right?"

Ran shivered and nodded.

"It won't be any worse than that," Jair promised. "And it gets easier the longer you stay out, as your manabody acclimates to the pressure."

The Crystal Mountains were a loose formation of a dozen floating islands made entirely of ice, stone, and crystallized mana.

Mana clung to the underside of each mountain like polygonal icicles, square-edged and faceted like gems, each formation a different color. Some mana crystals were fogged and barely translucent like smoky quartz, others clear and vibrant in blues or ambers. Most were clear and colorless, sparkling like diamonds in the dim planetlight.

"That's where we need to go," Jair pointed to the fourth mountain, a bit off to their left. It hadn't been harvested recently, so its crystals were still long and glittering, unlike the shorter and duller crystals on the nearer mountains.

"How are we supposed to get up there?" Ran asked.

"Easy. We climb."

"Climb?" Ran looked around with a frown. "Climb what?"

“I’ll show you when we get there.”

The trek across the plain took less time than it would seem, since these areas were liberally scattered with short-range transit platforms to make reaching the mountains more accessible wherever they floated off to. Twenty minutes later, they arrived at their destination.

Jair called out the passphrase in a series of high-pitched chirps and squawks he’d memorized long ago.

A rope ladder dropped over one edge, long enough that it trailed on the ground. "After you."

Ran looked at the flimsy-looking ladder, then craned his head back to look at the island floating far overhead. "I don't think I can do something like that. That's way too much climbing. I’m fine with normal heights, but that’s something else entirely.”

"It'll be fine, I know you're not that weak."

Ran balked, but after some urging he took hold of the trailing rope and began climbing.

"Don't overreact when you come out on top," Jair warned. "The stormkin don't like being gawked at. Pretend everything is normal."

"Stormkin?" Ran searched his memory as they climbed. "Bird-people?"

"Yeah. But a particular subrace that can survive at these temperatures natively. They're the keepers of the mountains and their mana crystals. No one can harvest here without their permission."

"So we're here for mana crystals?"

"Exactly."

They finally reached the top without incident, a feathered arm reaching down to help Ran, then Jair, up into the island’s arrival temple.

Twisted pillars of intertwined glass and carefully-grown mana crystals supported the arched dome of the roof. Bowl-like concave shelves were placed in curved tiers around the entire perimeter, giving it an almost stair-like appearance. Only two of these contained nests at present, but Jair knew they'd all be filled once time came to harvest this mountain officially.

The glass parts of the temple construction acted as magnifiers and lenses, allowing the dusk-like planetlight to filter through in rainbow beams that drew prisms across the frozen marble of the floor.

The overall effect lent the place a feeling of both grandeur and inhumanness. Like the rest of Nuprima, cold in its beauty.

Three stormkin stood waiting to greet them, in addition to the attendant on duty who’d assist the visitors up.

"We were not expecting anyone to come to this Selyr for another seven weeks," the central figure spoke. "We apologize for failing to greet you properly."

"The fault is ours." Jair bowed with his elbows out and hands twisted behind him, as was appropriate. Ran followed suit, his noble training giving him that much knowledge. In fact, Ran's bow was probably more correct than Jair's. "We should have given you notice before showing ourselves here unannounced."

"You claim the Delphinium's call? How could a kinless come to this position?"

"Earned by Rite and Gift, I am Jair Welburne. Chosen by Storm and Elect of the Frozen Wind. Heir of Firelight and Brother of The Ignis."

All three stormkin straightened abruptly and bowed ever deeper as Jair recited his list of titles, while Ran turned to his friend with a look of blank astonishment.

The central stormkin opened his beak to speak, but Jair held up a hand to silence him.

"There is no need to further honor me. I have received my rewards and ask only the boon of access to your fields. Seven crystals and I will ask nothing more."

The two stormkin counselors on either side of their leader turned inward, and the three discussed in low hissing chirps.

The one on the left thought Jair was a liar, while the one on the right felt humiliated that he hadn't recognized such an august personage immediately. The central figure remained silent, allowing his advisors to argue, until he finally raised a wing.

"What you ask is acceptable," the leader said with wary hesitation. "Seven crystals, and what is owed you by Selyri Mayi is discharged in full?"

Jair bowed again. "Thank you. If you have need of my aid, send the stormcall to the inner void and I will answer."

With a wave of the leader's wing, the attendant - currently prostrate with wings pressed over their ears as though afraid to be caught eavesdropping - hastily stood and gestured for Jair to follow. The leader and his advisors bowed one final time as they departed, holding this one until Jair's feet stepped outside the temple.

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