The week flew by with more northern plant-life experimentation. I was able to grow some more unique mosses and flowers in my cavernous domain and jot down their properties in the Codex based on what Stormy and Mooni were approximately guessing about them.

The luminescent blue moss I'd cultivated seemed to have mild analgesic properties when applied to skin, numbing it. A cluster of tiny white flowers that grew in the cracks between rocks produced a sweet nectar that, when consumed, heightened one's senses for a short time. Perhaps most intriguing was a hardy fern with silvery fronds that appeared to absorb ambient magical energy.

As I catalogued these findings, Moonalia's excited voice chirped through the Farcast orb. "Oh, how fascinating! Those plants-not-plants seem to have adapted to channel the local magical currents in unique ways. The blue moss might be tapping into healing energies, while the white flowers could be amplifying sensory perception magic. And that fern! It sounds like it's developed a natural capacity for magical energy storage. I wonder if we could replicate that effect artificially..."

Her enthusiasm was infectious, and I found myself sharing more details about the plants I'd discovered. Moonalia's insights, though sometimes difficult to follow due to her rapid-fire delivery, often provided valuable context or sparked new ideas for experimentation.

The days passed quickly as I continued my exploration, plant cultivation and Moonalia’s mental-alignment adjustment efforts. Before I knew it, a week had elapsed, and it was time for the Corvix’s arrival.

I made my way to the surface once again, emerging from our underwater hideaway onto the barren, windswept island. The sky was overcast as always, snowflakes fluttering down.

After what felt like hours, I finally spotted a small figure in the distance, gradually growing larger as it approached. As it drew nearer, I could make out Gregor's muscular form, his blood-red wings spread wide as he navigated the turbulent air currents. Moonalia was perched in the basket on his back, her feathers ruffled by the wind.

With a final sweep of blood wings, Gregor descended onto the flat basalt surface. The landing was less than graceful; the basket and bags swayed precariously, and Moonalia let out a startled squawk as she clung to the sides.

As soon as they touched down, Moonalia scrambled out of the basket, her body wobbling slightly as she regained her land legs. Her yellow eyes darted around, taking in the stark landscape before finally settling on me.

For a moment, she just stared, her beak slightly agape. Then, in a flurry of motion and words, she rushed towards me.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Stars and claws! You're real! You're actually here and real and not a horrible trick, not a barbarian hunter’s illusion made to trap and murder me! I mean, of course you're real, I knew you were real, but seeing you in person is just... wow! Look at you! You're even more fascinating up close! The way the light interacts with your form, it's all so… EEeeeeee!” She hopped around me like a magpie, black and white feathers fluttering madly. “And your eyes! They're so... alive and fluid! So not like a mundane gem! Oh, this is incredible! I have so many questions! Can I touch you? No, wait, I promised no touching. But maybe just a tiny poke? No, no, I'll be good. But oh, the things we could learn! The Builder artifact! Eeeeeee! It’s really real too! And Lady Stormy! Is she here? I brought treats and all of my tools! And I have so many ideas about the new colony and..."

Her words came out in an excited, barely comprehensible rush between squeeing as she circled me endlessly, her eyes wide with overly-exuberant curiosity.

“Cshomachok!” Gregor said suddenly with a deep, scruffy voice.

“Right, right! Urdusami posjih secaii!” Moonalia hopped over to Gregor, pulling all of her bags from the oversized man. When she was finished, the muscular man simply walked to the edge of the basalt island, spread his hand-wings and shot off into the sky without even saying goodbye.

“Welp,” Mooni said, looking left and right and then at me. “Guess this is where I live now. You do have a way of getting to the South to the island for our colony? You must… right? Yes? Yes?”

I simply stared at her.

“Oh,” she deflated. “You don’t. Right. That’s fine. This is fine. You’re real, that's what matters. We're going to the cave, yes? Yes.”

She quickly began undressing, removing her various tool-covered belts and straps. I tried not to stare as she stripped down to her black undergarments, revealing a lithe, curvaceous form covered in downy black and white feathers.

"Don't mind me," Moonalia chirped, noticing my discomfort. "Corvix aren't shy about our bodies. We're tools, after all. Just meat and feathers wrapped around an Insight-aligned Geist."

I averted my eyes as she rapidly slipped into the diving suit from one of her bags, a sleek contraption of leather and crystal-powered mechanisms. As I helped her adjust the straps and seal the joints, I couldn't help but notice how light and flexible the material was, despite its apparent sturdiness.

The suit fit her perfectly, hugging her form while still allowing for a full range of motion. Then she put a magisteel helmet atop of her head. With her beak and eyes visible through the small, clear faceplate, she looked like some strange, avian deep-sea explorer.

Turning on the little oxygen knobs on a magisteel panel on her wrist, she showed me a heart sign with her fingers which probably meant 'ready' in Arcanicx hand-sign dialect.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I nodded, taking her gloved hand in mine. Together, we descended into the icy waters of the North Sea. The cold barely registered for me, but I could feel Moonalia's grip tighten as we submerged. Her eyes were wide behind the faceplate, darting around to take in every detail of our underwater journey.

I guided her through the dark waters, past jagged rocks and swaying seaweed. As we swam deeper, I could see her excitement growing, even through the diving suit. Her free hand kept gesturing at various marine life and rock formations we passed, and I could imagine the torrent of unending questions and observations she was likely holding back.

Finally, we reached the hidden entrance to our underwater sanctuary. I pulled Moonalia through the narrow opening, and we surfaced inside the vast cavern. As we climbed out of the water, I helped her remove her helmet.

Moonalia's beak fell open as she took in the bioluminescent plants I'd cultivated, the eerie glow casting dancing shadows on the basalt walls. Her eyes darted from the plants to the sleigh, to Stormy, who was perched regally on a nearby rock.

"Oh my stars," she breathed, her voice echoing in the cavern. "This is... incredible! Lady Stormy, your grace, it's an honor to finally meet you in person!"

She bowed deeply to the kitten, who merely blinked in response.

Then Moonalia's gaze fell on the sleigh, and her expression shifted from awe to horror. "Oh no, oh no no no," she muttered, rushing over to examine it. "What happened to it? These crystals, they're... why are they...?! What is this crystalline strata? It's completely overridden the original enchantments. It's a miracle it hasn't exploded! Oh wait... it's dead. Everything is dead. Fried. Obliterated. Wow. How did you two manage this?!"

She quickly began pulling off her diving suit gloves, her fingers twitching with the need to start working. "I can fix this, I just need to-"

"Wait," I said. "Before you start, I need you to take off your rings."

Moonalia froze, her eyes widening as she looked at me. "My... my rings? But they're my tools, my... my self-adjusters. Without them I won’t be able to…”

“Won’t be able to modify your thoughts,” I nodded, pressing a remote to liquefy a small section of the cavern next to us. “Or my thoughts. Or anyone's thoughts.”

“But… but,” Mooni stammered. “If I can’t be optimal, then how can I meet your requirements?!”

"Mooni, I don't want you to meet my requirements via magical augmentation,” I said. “For once in your life, I want you to be yourself. The real you, not some optimized version that you think that Stormy or I want to see."

She blinked at me, her beak opening and closing silently for a moment. "But... but.... They help me focus, think, help me understand. Without them, I might say the wrong thing, or make a mistake, or… screw everything up catastrophically!"

"Making mistakes is part of being... a person,” I said. “Not just an automaton that serves some other automaton projected from a crystal."

“But I am a tool! The precipice of Geist Automation, designed to serve the Felix!” Mooni insisted. “I can’t just disconnect my…”

“If you want to touch this,” I tapped the snowflake on my belt. “Take off the rings and bracers and whatever other bullshit is messing with your own head and drop them all right here.” I pointed at the liquefied ground patch.

Mooni choked and fretted for another few seconds, then she quickly tapped her head with her talons one last time and began unscrewing the rings and magisteel claws from her fingers, exposing the bare skin underneath. Then she undressed again and did the same with shoulder, ankle and wrist rings.

With a resigned look, she dropped the rings one by one into the liquefied earth. As each ring sank into the muck, I could see a change come over her. Her movements became less precise, her posture less rigid.

When the last ring and bracer disappeared beneath the surface, Moonalia let out a shaky breath. "I... I feel strange," she admitted, flexing her talons. "Like I'm... fuzzy around the edges… disconnected from modality. Scary. I’m scared. I don’t like this.”

I nodded, re-solidifying the earth to trap the mind-manipulating tools within my domain, silencing their influence. "That's normal. You're feeling your own thoughts, unfiltered."

“What if they’re scary?” Mooni whispered. “What if I can’t handle… the newness of everything here? What if I am terrified and can't do what needs to be done because I'm...”

I handed her a life-water jug.

The Corvix pulled a lens over her right eye peering at the water.

“I… uh,” she stammered. “I can’t tell what this does. I was right… I think. The Flux wave is too wide, much too wide. Beyond the range of the SidusLens' observation!”

“It relaxed Cali,” I shrugged. “It’s healing water. It’ll optimize your health, fix whatever is wrong with you. You seem quite stressed and exhausted after that week-long flight, no?”

Moonalia hesitantly took a sip of the healing water. Then another. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she quickly drank more.

"This is... remarkable," she said, her voice sounding less frantic than before. "I feel... clearer somehow. Like an invisible fog is being rapidly lifted from my mind and body."

I watched as she took another long drink, her feathers smoothing out as the tension visibly left her body. When she finished, she looked at me with newfound clarity in her eyes and quickly pulled on her white leather coverall, zipping it up.

“May I touch?” She asked, staring at the snowflake on my belt.

I nodded.

Mooni suddenly grabbed my hand, holding onto it with her surprisingly soft fingers ending in black, sharp talons.

I squinted at her.

“You said I can…” She squeaked.

“I thought that you meant the artifact,” I sighed.

She didn’t let go, simply staring at me.

"You're... warm," she said, her voice trembling, right eye covered with the magnifying lens coming closer to my fingers. "And soft. 77.7 degrees, the temperature of a mundane healthy male. It's as if your entire being is made of impossibly intricate lattices, folded into the exact shape of a Nordstaii teenage male."

Her fingers traced the lines on my palm, her brow furrowing in concentration. "There's a pulse, but it's a tad slow. Too steady. Too perfect. No acceleration or jittering, like arcane clockwork..."

I watched through the Astralscope as yellow-orange feelers of her Aura caressed my hand with incredible gentleness, not influencing or trying to control like Cali's did, but trying to understand, as if a deep ocean creature was simply reaching out to me.

Moonalia's gaze met mine, her eyes filled with awe. "You're alive, but not in any way I understand. It's as if you're an image of a human that’s constantly being rewritten, moment by moment every time you move or take a breath, by some force I can't seem to detect, no matter how hard I try."

She reluctantly let go of my hand, her talons flexing as if trying to hold onto the sensation. "Ioan, what are you?"