The moment it slid into my mana-garden, something strange started happening. It reminded me of the reflection feeling that happened when I had chosen my mana types, but… different.

Instead of a mirror facing itself and bouncing back and forth until two solid, equal types of mana formed, the mirror was offset.

It bounced from one point to another offset mirror, and then from that one back to the first – three mirrors, making up one set, but not the same set as the mana types I knew.

I froze as a memory hit me – when I’d fed the lushloam into the key, something similar had happened. It had tapped my legacy and reflected.

A drop of destiny, Meadow had called this. But… Perhaps calling it a drop of destiny mana would have been more accurate.

The power stabilized within my spirit, and I was left with three drops hanging in my spirit. Each of them was smaller than the initial drop, maybe half the volume, and shimmered differently as well.

One of them was still the bright golden polish of a burning star that spoke of stories, of heroes and villains, the drop of destiny that I’d consumed, now diminished.

One was a blackish void of squirming power that spoke of eternity, vastness, of an eternal desire to consume and make all things a part of itself, to grow – either with or without boundaries.

The final droplet was full of swirling hazy rainbow mist, with strands of gold that reminded me of constellations, and spoke of connections between people, both of love and hate. It caught the wind and spiraled, buzzing, and I felt the wind intensify.

The wind of fortune blew harder in my spirit than ever before, and the drop of fortune mana reacted. It shredded, and though I could try to force it to stay whole, so I could use it, I didn’t. Instead, I allowed the wind to take the drop and fold it into itself.

Wind rushed across my mana-garden – no, across my entire soul – and I felt it steady, stabilize, spinning around in a nearly circular motion. No longer was it just something that I was touching upon from time to time, it was deeper than that. It was a part of me, on a deeper level.

The other drops – or half drops? – though… I considered them for a long moment.

I had a general idea of what each could do, based just on the feelings that they were giving, and a bit of a firmer idea about destiny, since I’d heard a few people talk about it.

I mentally worked through my list of spells that I could use the destiny drop on. The first thing that came to mind was Burn Future – I had rived it, and I hadn’t had the time it took to grind down the excess branches in the tree. It could shave off a lot of time if I used the drop to counteract the rive.

But that felt a bit wasteful, if I was being honest. It may save me time, but it wouldn’t add anything, not really.

Better to invest the drop in myself somehow, either to the walls of my mana-garden, or into the soil, or watering the roots specific spell.

What other spells? Magister’s Body felt obvious, and there really wasn’t anything that would make it a bad choice.

Briarthreads, Fungal Lock, and Pinpoint Boneshard were all staple spells in my arsenal, and strengthening them would be good too. Foxstep was newer, but it was invaluable, and an advantage most spatial mages didn’t have.

But I only had it because of a mixture of my legacy making the blend of space and time more effective, and the Magister’s Body.

That settled it in my mind. The Magister’s Body supported everything else in my mana-garden – it added creation and telluric to Briarthreads, creation and lunar to Fungal Lock, and desolation to Pinpoint Boneshards.

I floated the drop of destiny over to the massive tree that consumed the entirety of my second gate and slid it down into the roots, where it sank deep, deeper than I’d known was possible.

There wasn’t much change, but the power that the tree radiated felt more… Solid. Denser and more potent, certainly, but also deeper than that, it was similar to the feelings I got from dragon magic – Ivy in particular, with his absurdly potent power.

It didn’t rewrite my entire body with half of a single droplet, but it was noticeable. The power of the energy surging through my body became slightly thicker: instead of water, it was slightly thicker water… Saline, maybe? IV fluid?

I brought the drop of what had to be resolve over to the tree and slipped it down into the roots.

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Once again, it didn’t rewrite my body, but I felt the veins of energy in my body widen slightly, expanding from a soda straw to a milkshake straw.

I opened my eyes to see Kene glancing at me.

“You okay?” they asked. “You were sitting there for a long time.”

“I’m fine,” I said. “My legacy just… reacted oddly to the drop of destiny. It created three half-drops, one of fortune, and one of resolve.”

“That is strange,” Kene agreed. “I’d say that it makes sense, but your mana doesn’t do that with potions and stuff. Does it do it with raw mana sources, like deathpapyrus?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never taken them into my spirit, but it didn’t with my staff,” I said.

“No, it wouldn’t,” Kene said. “Those are… different. More of a reflection. It’s worth trying, even if it’s a bit wasteful – there’s no better time to waste a treasure than in a realm full of them.”

I nodded my agreement, and we left Dusk’s realm and – finally – got into the clearing where we’d entered.

The people from Delitone had done a good job of setting up a clearing, with several buildings scattered around, broad signs proclaiming what they were. Most were cheap hostels, but there was also a trade hall – presumably where the auction would take place – and a few healing stations.

There were dozens of small fires with logs around them set up, as well as large open areas illuminated by floating orbs of light similar to the ones at the gates of the library where some people were setting up tents. All throughout the space I could see members of the Delitone delegation moving around.

Octavian in particular wandered over and waved at us.

“Hey, good to see you all. We’ve set this area up as a peace zone – anywhere within the lights and fires is going to be completely nonviolent. If you don’t, we’ll ban you from the area and the auction. I’ve already had to kick out a few people, so… Hopefully not you guys.”

“Peace sounds great to me,” I said, and Kene agreed. Dusk waved to Roh, and the will-o-wisp danced around her.

“Great,” he said, letting out a small, relieved breath. “Do you need a place to stay? Our hostels are reasonably priced, and come with food. If you’ve got goods to trade, check out the trading hall.”

“We actually do have some goods, and also were wondering if you’d seen Travis and Liz?” Kene asked.

“The two you two were with? Not yet, but there are a lot of people here.”

We chatted for a while longer before we headed over to see the trade hall. It was a large, squat building with a low counter, and Cettilyn was standing behind the counter, alongside two other people. There was a line, but it trickled quickly – Cettilyn was very clearly using some sort of information magic and storage artifacts to keep things moving quickly.

When we got to the front of the line, she greeted us and nodded.

“What have you got, and what do you want? If it’s part of an existing trade, I’ll complete it here and now. If not, I can register the trade in our list, and you can check by later to see if someone completed it. If it’s a unique item, or a particularly unique natural treasure, we may just suggest it goes to the auction, this is best for trading mana sources and minor natural treasures.”

Dusk pulled out the waters we’d collected, alongside the stunstone and some of the wardstones, and finally the cretgem.

“We’re looking for any first gate death mana sources, and second gate death, spatial, and temporal,” I said, “As well as any treasures that can enhance life, death, space, time, forest spirits, or solar magic. Any plants work too – both general magic ones and the five leafed ones.”

I glanced at Kene to see if there was anything I’d missed, but he just shook his head.

“Noted… Alright, let’s see…”

She picked up the waters and vanished them away into her ring, then dropped a small mushroom that radiated first gate death mana from it, with shockingly little life at all, as well as a skull that seemed to be carved of soapstone that gave off second gate death mana. They paused and I felt a surge of mana, and then they took a small amount of stunstone and put down a jar filled with dust that seemed to teleport around, shifting its position constantly.

“That’s for the mana sources, and breaks us even.”

I swept them into Dusk’s realm, pleased with the results. I only needed a second gate temporal source, and I could assemble a domain weapon!

She moved onto the wardstone and nodded.

“We have several matches for this. You could get a brightflare, which is a minor natural treasure that could help solar spells master quicker, or a muddy armroot and a temporal source, or…”

She listed a few more options, and I argued for Kene to take the brightflare, but he insisted that he’d already taken the fruit from Mallory, so it would be a waste. I argued that he’d made sure we took drops from the plant as well, even though he needed them most of all.

Cettilyn had us step aside so she could help someone else while we argued.

Eventually, though, we got settled on the muddy armroot and the temporal mana source, since he could take a cutting of the root when we got back, and this would let me set up my domain weapon now.

The armroot was a small, curling brown root that was indeed shaped rather like an arm, and by mixing it with the vigor-camas and the right normal herbs, could be used to make several enhancement potions.

Finally, we got back to the appraisal, and she touched the cretgem, then tilted her head one way, then the other.

“I can offer you three greenroot stalks for it,” she finally said.

“Deal,” Kene said before I could say anything.

Three short stalks of what almost looked like a neon green lemongrass appeared on the table, and Kene picked up one, then tossed two to me.

“I know you’re going to insist that I take some, so I’ll take one. I’ve had longer with my life gate, so I’ve already built my walls up a fair bit. You haven’t.”

I grumbled, but took it, and we looked at the remainder of the stunstone.

“Nothing for this, I’m afraid,” Cettilyn said. “I can add it to our inventory, but I don’t think it’s worth putting up for auction.”

Kene and I agreed, and I peered at the stalk of greenroot. It was a first gate natural treasure, that much was obvious, but I wasn’t sure about what it did.

“Take it tomorrow,” Kene advised. “With the berries, we’re already running near the mana toxin edge. Best to sleep it off.”

I agreed, and we headed over to make camp, hoping that Travis and Liz would show up eventually. Before we did, though, I drew out all of the mana sources, the snapped halves of my staff, and and started drawing the ritual Ikki had shown me into the dirt.

It was time to build a domain weapon.