Oh my, Krista! Anomalous wattiez? Are you sure? Of course, you’re sure, you told me you were. Don’t think of it as a bad thing, this is something to celebrate. You can use wattiez, and not only that but you have Anomalous Affinity! I’d suggest you take things slow, have Amelia or Damien help practice your wattiez in private. Knowledge is power.

If Shining Twilight does find out, do your best to explain it away. Maybe say that you kept it secret to for some reason, speak with Damien, he’ll think of something. Speaking off, I have some information on Phive and Shix, they have a criminal record. Wanted in New Dawn their status in Shining Twilight has caused this case to go cold. Specific details are spotty at best, but records show that they assaulted several civilians and an officer. The officer losing her life.

Take from that what you will, but like always, be careful, and I love you! Can’t wait to show you this little surprise when you get back!

Krista wrote back, Thanks for the info like always. I’ll make sure to fill in Amelia and Damien. In terms of that whole anomalous wattiez episode, don’t worry I talked with Damien about it. I think I’m fine now.

We should be reaching Aurora soon, within a couple of days, in fact, to get the final member of Shining Twilight, Melody. Actually, there’s another member that I haven’t mentioned, Animus, but we have nothing on her. She hasn’t actually shown herself, but she’s apparently around here with us. Occasionally, Raven goes off to train, but it always sounds like there is more than one person training alongside him; I think it might be her.

Besides that, there’s been fairly little change in the day to day. I think Damien might be avoiding me a little after I confessed to him. Did I mention that? I finally told him I love him! Unfortunately, we aren’t a couple yet, but I won’t stop trying. If you have any information on it, He gets these strange headaches whenever he tries to think back on a part of his past. Specifically, the time we were in Journey. I’d appreciate any info, Love you Grand Auntie!

Damien breathed calmly and closed his eyes as he focused on the space in front of himself. Bright, sandy, and desolate, he envisioned the area behind shrouded in smoke, and his body took on a bright yellow aura. He opened his eyes, and the area around him was as he envisioned.

“Yes, silent synthesis!” cried Amelia as she watched him on the sidelines.

“I told you I can do it,” Damien retorted, “Takes longer to use though, I’ll have to work on that.”

After that debacle with Krista some nights ago, Damien had decided to distract himself with some good old wattiez training. He found it difficult to spend too much time around Krista. Before he could just laugh off her affections and keep his focus at the task at hand, but now, Damien found himself unconsciously looking towards her direction and accidently losing focus when he thought of her. Just like this very moment, when he caught her speaking cheerfully with Dante, and the smokescreen disappeared.

“Did you just lose focus there Darius?” Amelia asked, “That’s very unlike you, what’s got you so distracted…” She trailed off as she followed his eyes. “Krisha? Oh Vitnova, did she finally confess to you?”

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

It was only in these situations that Damien found Amelia to be incredibly sharp, “What about you and Dmitri, you two seem to be getting along pretty well.”

Hearing this Amelia beamed, “I’ll have you know that our relationship is strictly professional. I’ve been helping him on a research project regarding the effects of coolslime as a potential sun protection agent, in return he has promised to personally craft me a wand. It also helps that I think coolslime could also potentially double as a skin smoothening product. I’ve had ideas, but they’re native to Soaring Sun’s territories, so I haven’t had the chance until now.”

“Practice is going well, I see,” Matilda called from behind a tree. Damien suspected she had been there for quite some time, “If I’m not mistaken, you’ve already developed a synthesis for all of your affinities?”

“With Teach’s help, but two of them are still a bit shaky. My Relativity and wave in particular. They’re just not clicking like the others, maybe if I-” explained Damien until Matilda rudely interrupted them.

“No matter, no matter, I’m more interested in the next step, symbiosis!”

Darius thought back to the word, symbiosis, and remembered that’s when organisms came together in a mutually beneficial way, “So, using multiple affinities at once?”

“Yes!” Matilda exclaimed, “I’d like to teach you both inclusive and exclusive symbiosis.”

“Matilda, this is ridiculous!” Amelia interrupted, “Not only have you only given Darius mere weeks to develop multiple synthesis, of which most people take years to perfect just one, but now you’re trying to teach him symbiosis. Something even my mother had trouble showing me!”

“Yet, he has already done it,” argued Matilda.

“What, when- In our fight with Derek?” Amelia questioned, “That wasn’t symbiosis, in fact, I don’t know what that was, but symbiosis should not look like that. Don’t forget that he passed out right afterwards!”

“Technically, you’re incorrect, that was symbiosis, just a horribly, mangled approximation of it,” Matilda countered, “Like for everything else, all he needs is practice. I’m sure you’ll be of great assistance here.”

“How could I be?” Amelia asked, “I’m busy learning branching and helping out with Dmitri. The only reason I had some free time today is because Phive needed Dmitri to help him fix his dolls.”

“Can I be involved with this conversation?” Damien interjected, “You said I had until Aurora to develop my synthesis. Could you at least wait until then before-”

Matilda creeped forward and poked a finger on his chest, “No, absolutely not! I’ve waiting far too long already, and now you’ve reached the point of being a suitable specimen. Never forget the who is the only reason Amelia could come along on this trip.”

Damien noted that this was not an empty threat, “I’ve never been one to let loose of old grudges Matilda; I hope you bear that in mind.”

She just shrugged her arms, “As long as I can get my research done, I don’t really mind putting up with whatever grudges you may have.”

Damien breathed in deeply as he picked up one of his throwing knives, “I’ll hold you to it.”

“Great!” Matilda responded, “Let’s start with exclusive symbiosis, that should be slightly easier.” Later that evening, Matilda would return to her tent to find that sleeping felt a bit uncomfortable, more so than before, and each day it got worse. She would never learn it was due to Damien adding progressively more rocks underneath the tent.