Thanks to our continued travels, the concept of waking up in an unfamiliar place didn't really apply to me any longer. Two years, four if one counted the time I had spent on Mundus, of rarely waking up in the same place twice had conditioned me to simply accept my surroundings upon waking, while making sure that I wasn't under threat. Today, however, that didn't quite apply.

Mainly because, when I woke up, my mind was completely relaxed and in a state close to the one I had when using SIgmir as my personal pillow, my head resting on her chest. The realisation of my utterly relaxed state sent a surge of adrenaline through my system, my heart starting to race as my vigilance spiked. Magic started to swirl around me, thick and cold, dark enough to banish what little light had been in my vicinity.

"Mom, everything's fine," Luna's voice managed to delay my panic-fueled rampage, allowing me to refocus my mind and start taking in my surroundings. What my eyes and other senses told me was enough to make me flush with embarrassment. The sense of comfort I had felt didn't come from some sort of magical effect that tried to subdue me, or anything of that sort; instead, it had been due to a cocoon of power I had been wrapped in.

As it turned out, sleeping while resting on a literal seat of power gave me enough access to Astral Power that my subconscious desires started to leak out into the real world. My throne, with its direct tether to the Nexus below, was constantly letting a bit of Astral Power seep into the world around it, even if I wasn't sitting on it. Usually, that wouldn't do much; the Astral Power would probably just make the area around my throne seem a little darker and colder, nothing major. But when my own desires were infused into the Astral Power, it created something akin to a magical blanket, making me feel safe and secure.

Or maybe I simply felt safe and secure while shrouded in my own magic; it would make sense. Magic, especially the Arcane variant, was what I was good at, what I could use to break my foes and protect myself. For my mind to associate it with safety and comfort was an obvious connection.

"Apologies, Luna," I spoke, once my heart had stopped trying to beat out of my ribcage and my mind had judged and categorised the current situation. "I did not mean to frighten or discomfort you," I assured her, slowly rising from my throne, my muscles screaming at me in discomfort. Even if I had done my best to make my throne comfortable, Ice and Snow could only do so much, but I had a feeling that, after three, maybe even four, days of sitting and sleeping in a very static position, the seat would be utterly irrelevant. The time spent sitting on it had simply been too long.

"So, what happened up here while I was in the hole?" I asked, as I was starting to stretch, sloftly groaning at the sensation of protesting muscles moving for the first time in days.

"Not all that much, Mom," Luna shrugged, "After you didn't return for a bit, we tried to find a good way of contacting you, or come up with some idea to make sure you were okay," she explained, and I could see by the look on her face that they had been deeply worried. I wanted to apologise again, but Luna was already continuing.

"I thought I might be able to commune with you, using the bond between Maiden, Mother and Crone, but that didn't work quite as I had hoped. Not sure why, but instead of connecting to you, the ritual I tried to use connected me to the Crone, the one you know as the Grandmother," she explained with a somewhat embarrassed shrug.

"Maybe cause I was completely immersed in Darkness, not sure how much of the Concealment concept would be naturally present there," I suggested, though it was a complete shot in the dark, nothing but a wild-assed guess.

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Luna simply shrugged again, just as clueless as I was. "Anyway, the Crone, the Grandmother, was a little surprised, but she did her best to help me. Not that she could do all that much with the distance between us, but she managed to teach me how to get a sense of your condition. You know, whether you are healthy or hurt, alongside a vague sense of direction," she finished, getting a nod of understanding in return. It was an interesting development, but ultimately, it wasn't that much beyond my own abilities. If I wanted to find Luna, I was confident I would be able to. Similarly, I would probably be able to get a sense of her condition through our connection, but again, I had never tried to do so.

"Anything else?" I asked, "I mean, that can't have taken much longer than that first night. Did you just sit around for the other two nights, being bored?"

"Well, no," she shook her head, a faint grin on her face, "We decided to take a look around, you know, just to see what is happening in this area. If anything is happening or if there's just rock, snow and ice around."

"And?" I prodded, bending over with a soft groan as my back protested against the movement.

"We saw a few Rocs and I think I saw one of their eiries on a lower ridgeline. Lia managed to find a few interesting plants, quite similar to the Eisblumen we managed to make magically, you know, capable of thriving in the ice up here, but we didn't dare go too far. Not with the Rocs possibly deciding to turn one of us into a snack," she sighed, "Really, there's not much up here, we'll have to either change that, or you have to come up with a way to let us live somewhere else. You might enjoy all the Ice, but I really don't," she complained.

"I'll see what I can do, dear," I promised, "But at least the view is pretty good, isn't it? I've yet to see it during the day."

"When there is a view, it's neat, sure. But you know as well as I do that the mountain here is almost permanently shrouded in clouds, so you mostly see a wall of grey, with some snow, sleet and rain to make up the difference." There was another shrug, giving my suggestion the chilly dismissal it deserved.

"I'll try to change that, but I think I can see your point. Even the greatest view will get mundane in a few days, until it changes with the seasons," I nodded, wondering if I could make some sort of Gateway, allowing Luna to step through the shadows from one place to another. That way, I might be able to connect the tower I wanted to build here with the Dragon's Temple and Jademoon Tower, giving us access to a wide area.

"I'll see what I can do, but I can't promise you it'll work. But if necessary, I can always take you to Jademoon Tower, you could meet up with the locals there," I suggested, getting a nod in return.

Now, I only needed to figure out what Lia needed to be happy, though I had a feeling that this area wouldn't hold all that much interest to her either. There simply wasn't a whole lot up here, just the elements and a few animals. For me, it was a fascinating place. The merciless wind blowing across the mountains, the eternal glacier beneath our feet, the thaw and freeze of the top layer of snow, these natural processes all had an interaction with the elemental streams of the Astral River, something I wanted to study. To my daughters, it was just the weather, though I had a feeling that I might be able to get Luna invested in the study of these interactions; it would just take some time to make her see the beauty there.

Lia, on the other hand, had a much more predatory mindset. However, she'd likely be happy if I set up some sort of laboratory for her, where she could indulge in her alchemical studies to her heart's content, especially if it were in a place where explosions and destruction didn't matter. Similarly, some sort of Gate to allow her to visit other places would probably be welcome. Possibly even Jademoon Tower, despite the bad experience she had there. By now, I had heard a little more about the events that actually took place and wasn't quite as sure that my original actions had been correct. However, by now, there was nothing I could do to alter what I had done; I could only try to do better in the future.

But before I could start working on anything like that, I should get back onto my throne, sit down and continue to work. The tower I wanted wouldn't build itself, and until it was finished, I could hardly start on these other tasks and chores.

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