An idyllic scene:
The beautiful woodlands stretch off into the distance in all directions, a small muddy cart-track meandering off towards the rest of civilisation.
A selection of... mostly-human individuals, sitting or crouching by a sparkling stream flanked with a profusion of bluebells, panning the water for something - not gold, something more precious than gold, something more magic...
All of them have some slightly non-human features - prominent green veins, or patches of bark, or vines and flowers growing amongst the hair, or thorns jutting awkwardly through the skin. All of them have at least one prominent tattoo, a variation on the theme of a twining thorned branch; some have many more.
A few children running here and there, not tattooed, fetching and carrying and dancing and playing. Some are a little green-veined, some with scabs of bark from inevitable childhood accidents.
In general, a peaceful and Prosperous place, if a little light on infrastructure and facilities; some wooden structures cling to the forest's edge above the brook, haphazard shelters built with love and energy and not very much in the way of skill and patience.
'Just that. I'll get my bed back after breakfast, if anybody's been asking about it, seemed like it would make things worse if she was crabby today.'
'Expect she can make frame, will make cloth and stuffing appear, avoid need for repeat.'
"Mmhmm. -oh-" 'Daisy DZ said to remind you you wanted to check me for auras.'
Oh, she calls her Daisy, that's adorable.
Allegra hands off the notebook to Deskyl in case she wants to write any more, nods, and gets out some liao from her bag; she uncorks the bottle and pauses for a moment with a questioning look, to ensure Deskyl is definitely okay with doing this now.
Allegra pours a few drops of liao onto her fingers then dabs it across her eyes, and drinks the rest.
"I open the eyes of my soul," she intones, "and see what lies before me..."
The whites of her eyes have gone very slightly purple-ish, and she examines Deskyl with wide, unblinking eyes for a long count of ten.
(This definitely feels like something, and Deskyl doesn't entirely like it, though it's obvious enough that there's no actual harm being done. She straightens a bit and watches warily nonetheless.)
Finally, Allegra closes her eyes for a few moments, trying to fix in her memory the complex patterns involved in Deskyl's spiritual outline.
Then she gently takes back the notebook and starts writing.
'Vigilance dedication. Approved virtue, all fine. Extra bit: Peace - not approved virtue. Looks dormant? Priest might try exorcism, looks v. fixed, basic exorcism unlikely to work. While inactive nobody outside Anvil will go further.'
...huh. Not how she expected that to go at all. 'The peace effect is dormant, yes; I can activate it for some extra abilities but that doesn't happen by accident and is temporary. I don't expect it can be removed, but don't try it, either.'
Allegra nods, and writes, 'Quick insight won't show it, should be safe from casual inspection. Anything else? Wire people back later today maybe.'
'Just that. Maybe let people know that I can sometimes hear? Not usually, it's slightly dangerous, but if I ask them to talk that's why. Good news with the wire.'
'Will do.' She make sure Deskyl has had time to read, then puts the notebook away, smiles, and heads off.
Angharad is already up and is building up a pile of appropriately sized planks to apply walls to her house; it looks like it might have been much harder to reach the bed after a leisurely breakfast...
That's why she's here, yup. She catches Angharad's eye and gives her an acknowledging nod, then makes sure all the furs are of the bed before lifting it back overhead.
Angharad waves cheerily, then looks a little disappointed that the bed was not, in fact, a permanent donation. She watches where the furs land but doesn't interfere - she's a bit covered in sawdust to want to get near her bedding at the moment.
She's made a bit of effort to get the furs into a reasonably neat pile and keep them away from the construction, at least.
And, back home with the bed; she'll keep a metaphorical eye out for the kid who was handling her breakfast as she goes.
She is followed out of the main Steading area by a few teenagers, one of which is proudly bearing a plate entirely full of bacon-wrapped apricots.
Well, there aren't enough chairs for all of them but they're welcome to stay anyway if they'd like.
They are mostly not that interested in sitting down, once the plate is safely on the table a couple of them start doing some friendly sparring with sticks, others stand around and chatter to each other. One of them eventually scribbles a note on a scrap of paper - 'Is DZ OK?'
'She's basically fine. She's shut down until the wire comes in, but that's more like sleeping than anything bad for her.'
They show the note around a bit, a lot of understanding nods and smiles are deployed. They seem to be waiting for something - maybe just for Deskyl to eat, maybe hoping for another round of exercises?
She wants to do some stretching first, but yep, she's up for running through the katas again and giving out some pointers.
Stretching is also exciting! Clearly this is an Important Warm-Up to the Important Fighting Exercises. There are now about a dozen enthusiastic participants - the original half-dozen teenagers, the young girl, and a few more people that might be in their early twenties.
It's really less to do with that and more to do with how she slept on the ground last night, but sure, she's heard it's good for nonSith to stretch out before exercise. She'll run through this part slowly too, intermittently floating a pebble to help illustrate what she's doing.