"I'd prefer doing it here, then."

"Well, alright then. Sit comfortably somewhere. What I'll do is draw up the energy and try to get you to notice it. Easy as pie."

"Alright." She sits on the ground.

The Jade Sorceress bustles around, moving a few plants, then starts talking about life is all around her. She can feel the humidity on her skin, can't she? She can feel the solidity of the soil beneath her, and stone beneath that, correct? There is life all around her, living and breathing, slowly drawing forth a primal force, the very breath of the world. Can she not feel it? The pulse and flow of Ghyran, an alien energy of joy and life and growth guided in loops by this sorceress, almost reaching out and touching her.

...She can, in fact, feel it. Or rather, see it. A stream of green in the air always at the edge of her vision...

"There's a green stream of something in the air..."

"Oh, that's promising! That's potential. Track it, follow it. See where it comes from and where it goes, how it shifts... You'll know when you get the Level."

She nods, and tries to - focus her attention in on it. Where does it come from and go to? Where is it changing?

Where it's coming from and going is hard to answer, because the answer is... Kind of everywhere. It pools and flows, loops and eddies, draws in and out based on her breathing, plays over the leaves of the plants like a thin film of water flowing over pebbles. (She'll find it suddenly easier in a few minutes at this rate.)

"Wow," she breathes. "This is really something."

"Mmhmm. It's thick and rich here, in my sanctum of sorts. Just being here will help you feel well and whole. Can you see the other colors at all? Got that level yet?"

"Not yet, but now that you ask I'm looking." She focusses.

The other colors are present in only faint scraps and flickers. Something soft and grey there under the bench of planters. A faint lilt of purple lingering around a bin at the side of the greenhouse. Traces of golden light in the trowels and takes and knives by the door. (She gains her first level.)

"Got the level. Grey under the bench, purple by that bin, some gold in the metal."

"Ulgu, shyish, and chamon, respectively. That's enough to show you have potential, congratulations! I'm not the one to try to teach you, though. And remember that it's dangerous - I stopped trying to advance for a good reason. Still, Windsight alone can be useful. Knowledge is power and all."

"Indeed it is. Thank you again!" 

And she heads off back to where her and Bys were supposed to meet. It must be around time, right?

She's standing by the alley they agreed on! If Thorn looks close, she can see metal rings ending in a solid piece of metal for a collar, under her usual robe-like garment but over a thin black shirt. Her posture is straighter and more confident too.

"Thorn! I got the armor. Spent six silver five copper on it, and I'm pretty sure I got a decent deal. Steel. Does down to my elbows, and past my hips. 'M wearing it now, as you can see." She blushes. "No real reason, except it makes me feel a lot more confident. It's not even that heavy, I don't know what those guys in the Guild branch I used to work at were complaining about..."

"I like it on you. For the confidence, and also the protection. I think you look wonderful. And at a good price, too! I had a look for leads but it didn't go much of anywhere, so I got my Windsight awakened instead. Apparently it's dangerous to advance further and needs a real instructor, but this much could still be helpful. Knowledge is power!" She grins.

Abyssia grins back. Then pulls Thorn to her by one shoulder to kiss her. There's a flare of something red inside her.

"I want to... I'm not sure. But I want it, and with you."

She kisses, pulls away. Blushes. 

"For once you've caught me off guard," she says. "...I'd like that. I'd like that a lot."

"I don't necessarily mean that, but it does sound nice, doesn't it...?" She smirks, them just grins, with a giggle. "God, I love it. Confidence is a drug. Maybe dinner first. You can tell me what sorcery testing was like."

"Confidence is attractive," says Thorn. "And here I thought you couldn't get hotter. Dinner first, for sure. At a nice place, we can afford it. Do you have any preferences? I don't know anything about food here, but I'd love to learn."

"I actually don't! There's no real Fischer food here, just things that happen to use the same ingredients and I don't have any fresh-caught swordfish I can grill for you. We'll just have to follow our noses." She shrugs nonchalantly.

She laughs and nods. "Alright then, let's go looking." She takes Bys' hand in hers. "We can make an outing of it."

Handsqueeze. Smile.

"Yeah. Let's go!"

They find the street with the most cafes and restaurants before long. There are about a dozen different semi-nice restaurants. Bakeries, noodle places, sandwich bistros, a vegetarian joint, regional styles that don't match up with Earth's and have a variety of smells, an eerily familiar pizza place, a candy store, an ice cream shop...

"I'm thinking noodles, pizza, or Ertynan food," she says, referring to a place that smelled like sweet potatoes/yams and honey and cream. "What about you?"

"Pizza's familiar to me, I want something new," she says. "So let's do the Ertynan."