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There is a flat expanse of greyish dirt, mostly old cracked mud, dusty and worn. A few low hills break up the monotony here and there.
To the west, a shimmer of distant water. To the north, a smudge of green. To the south, the spiky silhouettes of mountain peaks. To the east, only a sliver of sun just beginning to peek over the flat grey horizon.
"Goodnight, Lily." She gets up and smiles at their friend. "We'll see you in the morning."
Back to the barn, give Lily a few minutes to finish with the pitcher before getting out the storage gem. She sits down on the bedding for a bit.
<Goodness. So souls, both here and in Torok's world, protect against death. And we come from a place without that kind of soul. And we're going to have to talk to Hazel to see what's happened to us since then. That's going to be interesting. Also, is it just me, or is Palla's hut suspiciously harder to find going to Hazel's then coming back?>
<I've noticed that too. It's quite bizarre. And the soul situation is certainly concerning.>
<It's kinda scary! Hopefully we can fix it. At least there look to be lots of ways to help people and improve things, though!>
<At least there's that, love. Very true. Shall we try opening the gem again, and taking some last notes before bed with that?>
<Sure. My turn, I guess?>
She pulls out the gem and gets into a comfortable position.
Hold the gem, meditate her way into her fingertips, don't think about the stories/worlds/lives where she's managed to get herself wedged into a stupid mess meditating on an artifact.
Oh wait, she lost it.
She tries again, actually gets there this time, and carefully untwists the origami into its expanded state.
She gets out the notebook, taking advantage of the sourceless light to take some notes. She diagrams what they remember of how heat pumps work, notes down that power sources and refrigeration are worthwhile techs to sell, and jots a reminder that bringing Torok along apparently isn't necessary since local souls do the thing too.
Then she puts the notebook away, and wraps her hands around the gem again.
It takes a few minutes' effort, getting into the right mental state and twisting it back closed, but she manages it.
And then they get ready for bed, tuck themselves in, say a round of "I love you"s, and sleep.
And once again the feeling of grasping and slipping shocks them awake. It's like taking a step, but it's too slippery, and suddenly there's nothing under your foot.
They really need to get a deeper understanding of what this weird revolving starscape that has inserted itself into their mindspace actually is at some point.
She slows her breathing and shifts into mindspace. She gradually slips into a meditative state, and starts walking. Up stairs of obsidian, each step careful, meditative, and deliberate. Into the center of the plateau, all of her presence drawn about herself. Sparks and flashes of color dance through the opalescent black crystal of the plateau, zigzagging outward with each step.
This is the highest point in their mindspace.
She reaches up, reaches conceptually because it won't be in "physical" reach here, and grabs at the fading wisps of whatever connection tries to draw a star down every morning.
It feels like life, like engagement, like their ability to grasp these stars is fed and grown by the cumulative force of their investment in living and growing and interacting and striving.
And then the wisps fade, and flit out of her grasp like smoke.
She stands there, in mindspace, for a long moment, and then flickers back out to reality and awareness.
<We'll keep trying. At least we know enough to know how to strengthen our grasp at those stars.>
Ruby nods along, and heads out to the pump for a drink of water, and to see if Lily's up yet.
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