No, she lost it again.

<Sable, we may be too worn from a long day of having our whole reality upended. What do you say to trying again in the morning?>

<Fair enough, love.>

And with a last round of "goodnight"s and "I love you"s to each other, sleep is prepared for and then had.

The inexorably wheeling constellations move, and for a brief moment, something in mindspace reaches out to try to grab hold of one of the stars. The star is too big, however, and their grip too weak, and the reaching thing slips off and flails through nothingness for a moment.

The sensation snaps Sable awake.

<Was that... another attempt at the thing that happened when we arrived? When we got a perk?>

<Sure felt similar. Just like a swing and a miss.>

Well, that's not something she can go back to sleep after, so how about trying that gem again?

<I suppose I can.>

She gets up, stretches, and fishes the gem out of their satchel, then returns to her comfortable position to try meditating again.

It's getting a little bit easier to bring her awareness down to her fingertips.

She breathes steadily, evenly.

She reaches across that minuscule — but oh so massive — gap.

Folds, Origami. Feel it all so carefully. The previous spot was wrong. This one? No. That one? No.

...Here.

She grips it gently, but firmly. Waits until her grip is sure and steady. And...

Tugs.

The gem locks in place. Out of it folds a pocket of space, mostly empty, containing only an antique wooden pedestal, atop which sits a functional but archaic-looking gramophone, with a record on the turntable.

That felt like it did something. She slowly opens her eyes, and smiles as she observes the gramophone on its pedestal. This looks like what was promised in the bonus perk they received on arrival.

She grins and reaches for the crank—

—Only for her hand to suddenly still.

<Neo,> Ruby exclaims, <we don't wanna wake Lily!>

Sable shakes her head, smiles, and hugs both, then gives Maya a big kiss in mindspace for figuring it out.

<Well done, love.>

She examines the gramophone carefully, nods, and then sits back down in front of the gem.

<Ready to figure out how to put it away?>

She nods, wraps her hands around the gem, and resumes the meditative state.

If this is origami, then putting it away is like folding it back up. But a gem like this would not demand the wielder to know the entire process of folding it from flat to store it again.

So there's a trick to it.

She feels for it.

The more she does this, the more solidly her mental model takes this origami form, and the more it seems to reveal aspects of the gem directly.

Oh. Do all these folds run in the same direction? Diagonally toward her, kata, and counter-clockwise? So if she grips here and there, and then twists counter-clockwise along the diagonal of the front/back and ana/kata axes...

Pop.

The pedestal and gramophone vanish from sight, but the faintly glowing pink border and the sourceless illumination of the whole space remain.

She chuckles. Whoops. She must have gripped a little too close together, twisted up only part of the gem.

After a moment, she calms herself and slips back into meditation.

Okay. Feel here, slide her grasp away from herself and on a slightly ana angle, where's the right spot to grip?

No... no... maybe... no... could work, but... definitely not... here.

Twist.

The rest of the pocket dimension folds back up, slipping away into the gem, which comes loose in her hands, no longer locked to the reference frame.

She admires the gem for a long moment, and tucks it away into the satchel.

<How about we go wash our face, have a drink of water, and generally get ready for the day, hm?>

And after a chorus of agreement, she rises to go do that, heading out to the water pump once she's dressed the rest of the way.

The water is fresh and sparkling in the morning sun; the fields gleam with dew. The house is quiet at first, but soon there are faint sounds as of someone moving around, and then Lily emerges with a pitcher.

She finds Maya having finished washing her face, taking a sip of water from her cupped hands, admiring the scenery.

"Good morning, Lily!"

Her voice is subtly but noticeably different from Sable's: a smoothly slow melody in place of Sable's bouncing lilt, a calm serenity in place of Sable's swiftness and playful eagerness. The slightest touch lower, in both pitch and timbre, almost like an ASMR host.