Dev stumbled back from the altar, the dragonling having let go while it was transmitting the technique to him. As he did, colors continued to pulse at him from all directions.

“What was that? Who was that?” he exclaimed, as he felt someone run up and support him.

“What are you talking about? Are you okay?” he heard someone say, distantly. “You went stiff after feeding the dragon, then you nearly fell over!”

“I’m fine,” Dev groaned, trying to ignore the light pressing in on all sides. “The dragon gave me a technique. I think it’s upgraded essence sight, uses my soul to see all around me. The voice called it Dreams of Heaven and Earth.”

“Did you activate it?”

“I didn’t do anything. But now everything is filled with colors.” Dev pressed his hands to his eyes.

A voice he recognized as Lucy sounded out from in front of him, asking, “Which colors are you seeing? Are you seeing the ambient affinities?”

Dev peaked back at the colors, noticing that they had lost some of their vibrancy. The area around him shone primarily with gold, which gave off a sense of imperial dignity. Speckled in were motes of deep, frozen blue and a substantial portion of rich earth brown beneath his feet. The altar was filled with iridescent shimmers that spoke of ancient dreams. He yanked his attention away as his headache spiked, causing him to press the heels of his hands into his eyes to relieve the pressure.

“Yeah, the color is definitely affinities.”

“Should I try it?” the voice at his shoulder asked, Dev abruptly realizing it was Jay who had caught him. “What was the voice you mentioned?”

“When I gave it the blueberries, it bit me and I heard a voice say ‘Dreams of Heaven and Earth, granted. Honor to the Dreaming Prince.’ Do you know what that was about?”

He felt Jay shift uncomfortably, answering, “I don’t know anything about a dreaming prince. We should be careful, just in case he’s real and connected to the imperial families. Lucy, Micheal, do you know anything about a dreaming prince?”

“Nothing,” Michael said from just in front of him.

Lucy hesitated before offering an answer, saying, “My family is much more in contact with the rest of the empire than most, but I’ve never heard of them. But they might just be a quiet player.”

After a few more minutes, Dev was feeling a lot better, and asked, “Who wants to be next?”

Lucy volunteered, saying, “I’ll go next. Maybe it will remind me of something important.”

“Makes sense,” Dev said, reaching to give her blueberries, before wincing as the movement overwhelmed his head again.

Lucy instead got out the blueberries herself, approached the altar, and placed them in the dragon’s mouth.

She stiffened, and Dev winced as he felt a large surge of dream essence. Stumbling back from the altar, Lucy raised her hand to her head, before straightening up, saying, “I’m not feeling a lot of pain. And this isn’t the same technique as you said.”

Dev leaned forward, interested. “It’s not?”

“For me, the voice said ‘Eyes of the Dreamer, granted. Honor to the Dreaming Prince.’ I didn’t recognize the voice at all, but that’s no surprise.”

“And the technique?”

“I have to activate it,” she said, before her eyes started glowing. “Woah, that really is intense.”

“Are my eyes glowing like that?” Dev asked Jay.

“No, nothing of the sort.”

“Hmm. Hers must be a body-based ability.”

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She looked at him, and gasped, “You look like an eclipse!”

Dev turned to look at himself, and saw that he was glowing in four colors, with sections of red, green, and purple obscuring a blueish-white body. But he could also see his body underneath the patches.

“It was not like that before,” he said, confused. He had looked himself over with the basic technique and it didn’t show anything beyond the ordinary blue-white anima attunement.

Dev saw a light out of the corner of his eyes, and saw that Jay’s eyes were now glowing as well.

“Wow, that is weird. And you definitely weren’t doing that yesterday.”

They both looked at Lucy, and she seemed unchanged, glowing anima blue with .

“It must be something with the technique. But why?”

“I’ll go next,” Michael volunteered uncertainly, “Maybe it’s an axiom thing?”

Dev did a mental inventory of their pickings, then turned to Jay. “It’s up to you. Do you want to go next or let Michael go?”

“Jay should go first.” “Michael should go first.”

They both looked at each other in surprise, then Michael said, “Hey, I’m the new guy, I didn’t help with the harvesting. It was wrong to ask to go before you when I didn’t contribute.”

“I’m helping Dev right now.” Jay countered, “I shouldn’t force you to wait, especially when you going could help Dev.”

“I mean, you could just let me sit on one of the benches,” Dev interjected.

“Well, yes, but…” Jay trailed off, spluttering.

“But nothing,” Michael said, “we don’t know why he got it, you may as well be next. Maybe you’ll get the same ability. Maybe we’ll all get different abilities.”

Jay sighed, then conceded by guiding Dev over to a bench.

“Fine, now give me some blueberries.”

He marched over without a word and placed the blueberries in the dragon’s mouth. From there, an event nearly identical to that of Lucy’s played out. There were lights, he went stiff, and then stumbled slightly amid a swarm of dream essence.

“Ow. That was sharp. I got Oneiros’ Eyes, and it spun off that same line about the Dreaming Prince.”

“Is it active or passive?”

“Active, definitely.” His eyes started glowing, and he looked at Dev. His jaw dropped. “Woah, do you guys get the real-time feedback on what essence you are looking at?”

“Yeah,” Lucy said, “Dev, do you have a talent in fire, life, and rune magic?”

“I have a low affinity for each. But surely y’all must have other affinities, and you aren’t glowing like a rainbow.”

“I have shadow affinity,” Lucy admitted.

“Water and air,” Jay said.

“Lightning and runes,” Michael added.

“So why do I have this and you don’t?” Dev snapped, before wincing once again as the headache sprung up..

“How about I try,” Michael said gently.

“Fine, have some blueberries,” Dev grumbled, slapping some into his hand.

Michael walked up and placed the blueberries in the dragon's mouth again. This time, there was a much stronger reaction, the surge of dream essence far greater than that prompted by Lucy or Jay. He broke away with a shout, and Jay rushed up and caught him as he stumbled.

“Are you okay, man?”

“Yeah—” he shuddered “—These colors really are intense.”

His eyes weren’t glowing, and Dev looked at him, only to see that his essence hadn’t changed either.

Michael stood back up on his own, slightly unsteady but in substantially better condition than Dev. “I got the Waking Dream and the same thing about honoring the Dreaming Prince.”

“Okay, so we all got perception abilities,” Jay said. “Why? And why are some passive and some active? And why is Dev’s debilitating?”

“I think I know the first one,” Michael offered. “Think about it, where did we get them from?”

“An altar?” Lucy suggested.

“A temple?” Jay added.

“And why do people seek out temples? Prayer!” he exclaimed. “A request for divine guidance! It answered our prayers—” he gestured excitedly.

“It granted us insight…” Dev breathed.

“Exactly! It gave us each the insight we needed. I’m sure that if we compare, we’d find that they are slightly different.”

“Do you think…” Lucy said slowly, “—that reason you two got passive abilities is because of your axioms? I know you mentioned it before, but I think it's a question of specialization and what we can use right now.”

“Maybe. But there's not enough data for a meaningful conclusion.”

“So why did it leave me sore and altered?” Dev asked after a few minutes of silence.

“I don’t know,” Jay said, the others agreeing.

“Maybe it thought you could handle it? Or maybe it misevaluated you?”

“Well that would suck,” Dev said.

They were bandying around ideas, trying to find solutions, when Dev’s stomach started growling. “I vote that we table the matter and get some food. Hopefully, a hot meal and sleep will help.”

The others agreed, and they went into the kitchen to make a vegetable broth using the kitchen’s cooking utensils and the food they had gathered.

Jay helped him to bed, and Dev fell into a deep, ironically dreamless sleep.