Witches and wizards shuffled outside our temporary home, accompanied every so often by the hard clanking of armored boots. Lively discussions, hushed murmurings, heated shouting, all of it thickened the air of Arden with a strange atmosphere.

  Luna yawned tiredly as she awkwardly stumbled into the quaint dining room.

  She frowned in confusion at the endless tide of footsteps which disrupted her rest.

  “Hey, what’s going on today?”

  I blinked, pausing as I set down a plate of breakfast… er, brunch actually, I guess… in front of her.

  Oh, right.

  I hadn’t gotten the chance to tell her since she came home from Nindo late at night and collapsed onto her bed as soon as she did.

  I chuckled awkwardly.

  “Well, you know how this place isn’t just a house, but the basement is directly connected to the Paradox Engine and the building next door, right?”

  Luna nodded wearily, lightly poking at her food.

  “Umm, yeah. Sometimes I hear Mother arguing with the engineers and magi in the basement. A few of them wave at me sometimes when I go outside.”

  To be honest, calling it a simple ‘basement’ or ‘workshop’ was doing it a massive disservice. It was practically an entire facility down there, complete with research equipment, monitoring devices and working personnel, linked by the underground tunnels to the massive spire next door, which marked the thriving heart of all magical research in Arden.

  We just called it that because that was all Mother cared to call it.

  Even something as grandiose as the future beating heart of Arden – the core of what would become the Paradox Engine – was not even really that worth remembering or mentioning for her. It was just a small footnote in her life and legacy.

  “Have you ever talked to them?” I smiled, “They’re quite nice folks.”

  There was constantly a team of engineers and magi hard at work throughout the entire day, constantly discussing their work and the state of the city around the clock just outside our door.

  Luna looked at me weirdly.

  “No,” she grimaced slightly, “why would I do that? They’re just strangers, I can mind my own business.”

  “Aw, come on,” I smiled, “you should try it! You could learn a lot from them, when else are you going to get the chance to learn from professionals? Weren’t you curious about the Paradox Engine as well? There’s your chance!”

  Luna’s face soured a bit in between small bites of her meal.

  “I’m not like you, I can’t just… walk up to people I don’t know and just start talking to them. And besides, you’re just happy you’re finally not lagging behind everyone else.”

  I pouted, but did not try to refute her.

  “Also,” she continued, “half of them are freaks.”

  She winced.

  “Even if they are really smart, half of them are just impossible to talk to! They just babble incoherently about nonsense and go off the rails about their engineering and geomancy and extraplanar whatevers.”

  She then sighed, pouting in turn.

  “What kind of self-respecting witch majors in geomancy? That field of study is so old-fashioned! They hardly even print books about Cardinal Theory these days! And the engineers too, all this stuff about mechanics, technology and invention, that’s all just a crutch for subpar spellcasters!”

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “Aren’t you a ritual witch? Is that any different? You’re still not a spontaneous spellcaster.”

  Luna just rolled her eyes.

  “It is different. I’m not pawning my work and designs off for someone else to use, and it still requires me to constantly problem-solve on the spot in high-tension situations! It’s very taxing, unlike the cushy job they have where they just get to sit in their workshops all day tinkering with saws or whatever! They’re all just leeching off of Mother’s hard work!”

  Well, she was consistent with at least one thing, that being her endless idolisation of Mother. Even as she became obsessed with becoming a ‘proper witch’ over the years, she had never stopped in her almost-worship, even if she was unable to see past some of the hypocrisy and contradiction that came with those conflicting ideals.

  Well, to be honest, on this matter specifically, I couldn’t disagree with her much.

  I had talked to a few of them on a couple occasions as I passed through Arden on my weekend breaks.

  They were certainly… strange occurrences.

  It was weird on multiple fronts.

  For one, I was actually on somewhat even footing with other witches and wizards for the first time in my life. Mother’s work was so esoteric and strange on so many levels that it left even them confused. Somehow, I was in a position where I might have actually known more about some of the runic components and geomancy functions than actual qualified professionals.

  And second… it was strange not being shunned by other witches.

  Arden was a place where oddballs and misfits gathered. These were prodigal talents who turned away admission into the Citadel, not caring for their doctrine, the pride of magi or the sanctity of the study of magic.

  As a heretical, worldly witch who studied the lowly form of healing magic, I practically fit in right at home with them.

  “Well, anyways,” I sighed, moving on, “the reason everyone’s so noisy today is because it’s the day the first part of the Paradox Engine comes online.”

  Luna blanched, freezing as she almost dropped her fork.

  “W-what!?” Her jaw slowly hung open, “W-why didn’t you tell me!? I-if I knew, I would have prepared!”

  “Eh,” I just shrugged, “I was going to tell you yesterday, but you crashed straight into bed. And it’s not like I could tell you before that. Mother and I were both busy for two weeks and you didn’t come back to Arden during that time.”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Besides, it’s hardly the most important thing happening today.”

  “What are you talking about!?” Luna jumped up, “What could possibly be more important than that!? It’s the Paradox Engine, for Sol’s sake! All of Mother’s dreams and ambitions come into fruition!”

  At that moment, another figure barged into the room, kicking the door open.

  Mother scowled, lightly rubbing the bags under her eyes as she peered in. She was as sloppily dressed as ever, her robe halfway down her shoulders as usual, almost exposing her underwear to strangers.

  Even for such an ‘important’ occasion, she still couldn’t be bothered to care about the way she presented herself.

  “Oi, you two ready?”

  Her tired eyes flicked across the two of us.

  “M-Mother!” Luna almost fell out of her chair, “I-Is it true!? I-is today really the day the extradimensional part of the Paradox Engine come online!?”

  Mother just arched a lazy eyebrow at Luna’s attitude.

  “Eh, it’s not really a big deal. It’s just a fucking doohickey I was pestered into compromising on. Not that important or anything. I’ll bust out the celebratory wine when I figure out how to get Logos functional on a macroscopic level.”

  She started to scoff, looking vaguely annoyed about something or other.

  Luna just gawked.

  “B-but, Mother! Isn’t the Paradox Engine the culmination of your dreams!?”

  Mother just blinked cluelessly at Luna.

  “Uh, I guess? I mean… yeah, maybe? But it’s not like this is the Paradox Engine or anything. It’s just a slightly more efficient component for mana generation to power the city. I’ve made a fucking thousand of these small incremental improvements in the past, just because this one uses fancy math to suspend its pieces in extradimensional space doesn’t make it any special.”

  Luna was left bewildered at the ridiculousness of her words.

  “Besides,” Mother shrugged, “it’s hardly the actual big event of today.”

  “H-huh?” Luna blinked.

  Mother shot her another weird look.

  “You do remember what date it is on the calendar, right? You better not go make forgetting your birthday a habit. That’s twice in a row now.”

  My sister’s eyes widened silently.

  “Anyways, hurry up, you two. The folks are almost done with the checks and procedures, kinda just waiting on me now. I’d like to get this over with sooner rather than later. Had to pull an all-nighter for this and my eyes could really fucking use a break soon.”

  I giggled.

  “Sorry, Mother. Luna only just got up, it’ll be a few minutes before she finishes eating.”

  Luna jolted, flinching as she suddenly came alive with panic, quickly looking down at her plate with wide eyes before scrambling to shovel the rest of the food into her mouth.

  “Estelle, come on,” Mother beckoned me towards her, turning around without any further words.

  “W-wait for me!” Luna stumbled to her feet, gulping down the food as fast as she could while running towards the sink, leaving scraps and drops on the floor as she wobbled around.

  After hastily tossing the plate inside the sink, Luna ran through the house, catching up to us, still halfway through putting her clothes on while she stumbled.

  The excitement and tension brewing in the city was audible and palpable, even as we descended down our home, into the underground ‘workshop’ that was connected to the central spire.

  Outside, the streets of Arden were more crowded than they had ever been throughout its history.

  Even Arden’s heart, which was usually desolate, populated only by the witches and wizards commuting back and forth to and from the central spire, was now packed to the brim, with every single mage who had ever contributed to the city’s development hurriedly flooding the streets, piling into the spire as they all made their last minute checks and prepared for the final signal.

  Countless knights lined across the buildings, stalwartly watching across the city as they acted as security for the day.

  The entire research facility downstairs was no different, with personnel running back and forth like we were in a wartime battleship.

  Even still, we were able to make our way through it relatively quickly, as most of the workers recognised us, stepping out of the way to let us pass through.

  Before long, we arrived at the central reactor powering the city.

  I held back a laugh, staring at it.

  Really, it was quite silly for Mother to call a space as expansive as this something as mundane and unimportant as a ‘basement’ or ‘workshop’.

  The reactor alone, not even considering all the other rooms and facilities attached to it, was easily the size of a small house by itself.

  It was hard to describe what exactly I was looking at. It was a grand, unknowable invention that seemed foreign and incomprehensible even to myself, who had come from a world much more technologically advanced than this one.

  If I were to try, it seemed to almost resemble Mother’s Helios Engine, which itself was vaguely modelled after a model of a solar system.

  Floating rings spun around a singular bright blue star-like dot, spiralling in a dazing pattern that was simultaneously uncontrolled yet rhythmic.

  Low otherworldly hums thrummed from the core, sending faint but powerful tremors through the floor.

  Four pipes, one in each cardinal direction, linked up to the disconnected (?) pedestal beneath the alien machine, funnelling condensed, almost liquefied pure mana away from the generator, through the city’s vast network of underground tunnels that formed a massive ring which encircled Arden.

  There was no doubt that right now, at this very moment, the tall walls of Arden would be packed to the brim with countless curious visitors, all huddling together shoulder-to-shoulder as they looked over the edge to see what was about to happen.

  Mother clapped her hands together, the echo bringing the place to a still silence.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Alright, everyone! We’ve been at this shit for like twenty hours straight now, let’s just hurry up and get this over with so we can all go home and get some shut-eye, yeah? One final check before we start, how’s everything running?”

  Luna and I were quickly drowned in an endless tidal wave of noise and chatter.

  “Contuinity and closure, how are we looking?”

  “The loop is perfectly closed! No discontinuity, phase drift or warping!”

  “Temporal stress?”

  “Still good! Still travelling normally across the fourth dimension. Not observing any desyncs, no entropy scars or inversions. We’re all good to go!”

  “Mass nullification test, all results in order?”

  “All good to go, Lady Symphonia! It’ll still be stable under proper load!”

  “Planar anchors and pylons, check!”

  “Coordinates locked on! Got a proper read on Arden’s position relative to Manusyara’s position in hyperspace! Everything is synchronised and aligned!”

  “Coupling, containment, isolation!”

  “The circuits are properly isolated! Verified that no living or spiritual matter from Manusyara can interact with it, linked to the Paradox Engine and only it, madam!”

  “Alright, let’s get this thing properly running then! Ritual mages, you’re up, front and center! You know the drill, we need proper elemental harmony for Samsara! Cancel out the wavelength from the Black Moon to the east, adjust for the leyline in the mountains. You all remember how to compensate for the destabilisation the Qliphoth Bridge will bring, right? Don’t worry about the calculations necessary to nullify the Engine’s reactor or the initial energy burst for the ritual, I’ll be handling that along with my daughter.”

  Mother’s eyes snapped to me.

  “Alright, Estelle. Come on.”

  I gulped, calming my nerves.

  Luna blinked at me in confusion.

  I just chuckled nervously.

  “Sorry, Luna, I’ll explain later.”

  Ideally, in its perfect form, all three components of the Paradox Engine would form a stable, self-perpetuating infinity, able to start up and continue running until the end of time without need for outside aid or an initial kickstart.

  This, however, was just one component of three, and that meant a massive front-load of energy had to be provided with a temporary invocation of Mother’s other two spells.

  The Helios Engine would be responsible for sustaining Logos for just a bit. It obviously wasn’t enough to power Arden by itself, but it would be enough to kickstart the process to gather the prerequisite amount of energy needed to properly invoke Samsara and Qliphoth in their perfect forms.

  And that was where Mother and I came in. The self-contained Samsara mechanism within the Helios Engine wouldn’t be enough. We needed to manually invoke the perfect ritual form. I was just there to help offload the burden on Mother as the only person she had properly taught Samsara to.

  Most of the personnel started filing out of the reactor room, before reappearing much further up, behind glass observation panels further up on the walls, surrounded by all sorts of controls and monitoring equipment.

  There was only a small ring of robed ritual mages left, forming a circle centred on four clusters, each tasked with drawing out perfect harmony from a particular element.

  With the path clear, Mother and I stepped forward, climbing directly underneath the planetary body of the Paradox Engine’s core, on top of the pedestal.

  Mother clicked her fingers, summoning the Helios Engine, leaving it hovering between the two of us.

  “Alright, kid, whenever you’re ready.”

  She held her open palm to the smaller contraption.

  I exhaled, and emptied my mind.

  I felt the wavelengths of elemental mana surrounding me slowly become tangible, almost pushing my soul around, beckoning my mana in every direction.

  I held my palm to the Helios Engine, mirroring Mother’s movements.

  I closed my eyes.

  A singular ‘Word’ echoed through the darkness.

  “Logos.”

  The grand ritual started.

  Bright white light burst forth from nothing, showering even the darkness of my eyelids with inescapable light.

  Around us, the ring of ritual mages started chanting.

  I felt the wavelengths of the elements slowly calm and stabilise, synchronising and blending together.

  It all came together in a singular perfect harmony, each of the elements perfectly provoking, catalysing and nullifying each other, until a singular ripple remained, each of the signals moving through the center and emerging as they passed as a singular perfect ring.

  Together with Mother, I took a hold of that new emergent wavelength, straightening it out and spinning it into a singular thread.

  The thread formed a circle, and the circle formed a wheel.

  Endless propagation, unity through the cycle.

  “Samsara.”

  A bone-shattering weight of tremendous raw mana settled in, almost burning and frying the air with its sheer intensity.

  The energy of the artificial star, the harmony of the elements, all of it twisted and turned as it spun through the endless cycle over and over, unravelling into an unfathomable tide of energy.

  I grit my teeth, holding onto the wheel as best I could, continuing to turn it over and over as I felt Mother prepare the final step.

  Mother’s hand passed over mine, gently brushing over the stream of mana.

  She tugged at the thread, and flicked it to the side.

  Up, down, back and forth, side to side. Over and over until she ran out of directions.

  Then she beckoned it to the impossible, to beyond.

  The stream flowed into an impossible space.

  “Qliphoth.”

  And I felt the weight slowly fade away, absorbed into that impossible space.

  The reactor above us started to whir, coming alive with energy as its orbiting rings started to blur from view as they spun in nonsensical, logic-defying directions, threading in and out of this dimension.

  “Alright,” Mother’s soft hand slowly gripped my trembling fingers, “it’s over now. You can open your eyes now.”

  I slowly opened my eyes, wobbling back and forth on heavy knees, panting and sweating.

  The space around us was bathed in a radiant, otherworldly glow.

  I looked up at the machine, at where the pipes and tunnels once connected to it used to be.

  My eyes started to hurt looking at it.

  Not because of the brightness, not that it helped.

  What once was a simple three-dimensional construction now bent and twisted into directions I was struggling to properly perceive, with my brain simply choosing to interpret the visual signals as the thing simply disappearing in and out of view every couple of metres.

  Mother sighed, before slinging my arm around her shoulder, helping me down as we met back up with Luna.

  My little sister blinked.

  “Is that it?”

  Mother just shrugged.

  “Yeah. I told you, it wasn’t anything to be that excited over. If you wanted a show, you’d probably have to go outside. The other magi predicted a really trippy light show. The whole central spire would have lit up, there would have been a giant dome of mana enshrouding Arden, sky would have bent and distorted, would have seen an aurora and a network of lights. Down here though? It’s just a hunk of junk.”

  “O-oh…” Luna wilted, seeming a bit disappointed.

  Mother rolled her eyes.

  “Alright, kids. Come on now, let’s go celebrate something actually important, yeah?”

  It was a rowdy, starlit night.

  The city of Arden was almost as bright as it had been during the day, with the people seemingly deciding to call an impromptu festival for the day.

  I couldn’t really care less about all the sound though.

  …Well, that wasn’t fully right, I cared a little bit. I hoped no one was getting themselves injured or anything.

  After all, I was busy right now.

  “Happy birthday to you~ Hip hip, hooray~ Hip hip, hooray!”

  I giggled, watching Luna’s awkwardly expression as she silently trailed off.

  “Come on, Luna, sing with me!”

  She just rolled her eyes and looked off to the side, huffing with a small blush.

  “Alright, Estelle, enough teasing Luna. If she finds it embarrassing to sing, then she just finds it embarrassing to sing,” Mother chuckled gently, patting me on the shoulder.

  She looked towards the cake on the table between us.

  “Come on. Make your birthday wishes.”

  Luna paused, looking at the candles flickering in the darkness, before looking at me.

  “You’re not gonna ask me to write it down or anything again, are you?”

  She stared at me warily.

  I chuckled at her skittishness.

  “Of course not, Luna. That was a special occasion because you needed an intervention last year. You can keep your wish to yourself this year if you’re on good behaviour.”

  Her blush deepened momentarily, before she cast it off with a small grumble.

  She sighed, closing her eyes and clapping her hands as she clasped them together in a small, half-hearted prayer.

  I followed suit, but did so much more gently and earnestly.

  With only the dim backlight of the birthday candles breaking through the darkness of my eyelids, I prayed.

  I wished for the same thing I wished for every year before.

  “On three, ready?” Mother whispered.

  I sucked in a deep breath.

  “Three, two, one…”

  We blew out the candles in unison.

  I opened my eyes, and took in the sight of my family.

  I loved them.

  Of course, that mostly went without saying, but… sometimes it just felt nice to remind myself of that fact consciously.

  “Oh, right, one more thing before we start with eating,” Mother smiled, getting up briefly.

  She came back a dozen or so seconds later, slamming down two wrapped gift boxes onto the table.

  “Got some gifts this year. Know I don’t usually do this but, well… guess I did feel that this is a bit of a special year in the end, and got a bit sentimental.”

  Mother blinked, before pausing and reaching into her pockets.

  “Ah, crap. Almost forgot. Take these too. Here, this one’s yours, Estelle. And this one’s for you, Luna.”

  She held out two jewelled necklaces to us.

  Luna frowned.

  “Ugh, Mother, really? I’m not materialistic, I’m not gonna get excited over fancy jewellery like the other girls my age. Treasuring anything worldly is unbecoming of a witch!”

  Mother just rolled her eyes and laughed at Luna’s antics, before dangling it and pushing it into her hands.

  “Just go along with it, would you? Just think of it as a keepsake from your mother. It would mean a lot to me if you kept it on you.”

  Luna sighed, taking it from her and inspecting its strange inscriptions, confused by what they were meant to represent.

  “Fine. If it really matters to you that much. But I’m not going to be flaunting it or anything, you know!”

  Mother laughed her off again.

  “Not expecting you to, nor do I want you to. I’m also not a showy or materialistic person. Just… keep it on you, alright? Just do a favour for this withered old hag and keep it safe, ‘kay?”

  “M-Mother!” Luna jumped, “D-don’t say that about yourself! Y-You’re the most beautiful woman in Arden! I-I’ll treasure it, d-don’t worry, I’ll keep it safe with my life!”

  Mother just shook her head in amusement and handed me my own necklace.

  I took it into my palms and brought it closer to me.

  I thumbed over the inscribed runes.

  They seemed… familiar. Why did-

  I was stunned into silence.

  My eyes slowly widened as I traced over the alien, but familiar, spell.

  I only didn’t shoot up and jump because I was just that shocked by what my mother had just put into my hands.

  “M-Mo-”

  “Shh,” Mother placed her finger over my lips and shushed me.

  Luna was too distracted to hear us, as she slowly got frustrated in her inspection of the accessory, growing more annoyed by the incomprehensible runework grafted into the gem.

  “Just a little something to help you with Samsara in case you ever need it. Well, there’s something else to it as well, I guess, but that’s just as a contingency.”

  “T-this… D-did you give Luna the same thing?” I trailed off, before recognising something on Mother’s body that wasn’t there before.

  Around her neck, tucking into her cleavage, was a thin chain, matching the necklaces she had given us.

  Mother just shook her head, still smiling.

  “Not quite. They’re all part of the same series, each of ‘em is for something different. I’m sure you can put the pieces together.”

  She stood up and clapped her hands together, speaking to both of us again.

  “Alright, girls! You can play around and fiddle with them later. For now, let’s open up your presents, yeah?”

  I sighed, haplessly fingering the new gift I was given.

  Well, I guess I would think about it later.

  To get my mind off those thoughts, I hastily tore away the wrapping on the gift box in front of me.

  “Hm?”

  I blinked, looking at the object inside.

  I curiously took it out.

  A wide white witch’s hat rested in my hands, a dense, bleached intricate buckle wrapped around the coned crown.

  “You’ve been at it for a while now,” Mother shrugged, “figured it was time. You might not have graduated from Nindo just yet, but I think you’re more than deserving of it by now. Congratulations, Estelle, you’re now a proper witch in your own right.”

  It was rather lovingly crafted, something that was obvious when looking at the underside of the brim, which was custom-woven to resemble a veil of stars, which seemed to shimmer and move as I fiddled with it.

  I smiled fondly.

  “Thanks, Mother.”

  Seeing what I had been gifted, Luna just pouted.

  “Mother, that’s not fair! Why does she get to be called a proper witch before me!?”

  Mother rolled her eyes in exasperation.

  “You should open up your own present before you say anything, Luna.”

  My little sister just grumbled, before lazily tearing the wrapping apart and opening the box.

  It didn’t take long for her to gasp, her eyes brightening.

  Her hands shot in, taking out a hefty, ornate tome and holding it up to her face with a bright, innocent smile.

  “I know you’ve been pestering me about it for quite some time, well here it is. Your very own grimoire.”

  Luna’s eyes glimmered with childish glee, her face almost immediately losing its rough adolescence as it reverted to a carefree expression.

  “What should I call it!? What do you think sounds good? No, it also has to look nice to write, it has to be a name that historians and witches will be reverent of for hundreds of years! Symphonia Concerto? Symphonia Anthem? No, Ballade? Carol? Fantasia, March, Nocturne, Opera?”

  I chuckled, but did not interrupt her.

  It was nice to see this innocent part of Luna come out every once in a while. It was becoming a rarity these days.

  Mother laughed in amusement alongside me.

  “Maybe worry about naming the book a little later. You have your entire life ahead of you, Luna. Focus on filling in the pages first.”

  Luna froze, before realising something.

  “F-filling it in… right!”

  She perked up, beaming with a wide smile.

  “S-sorry, give me a minute, I-I need to go back to my room to get something really quick!”

  She ran away from the dining table, stomping up and down the stairs rapidly before returning with a large tripod, attached to a strange-looking magical camera.

  Mother smiled as Luna fiddled around with the complicated device in an amateurish fashion, before deciding to get up herself and badger Luna away.

  “Here, here, don’t worry about it, Luna. Let me configure this thing for you, I was the one who got this thing for you, after all. Go on, go stand next to your sister and pose, I’ll get this set up in a jiffy.”

  “Okay!”

  Luna bounced excitedly, laughing with a wide grin as she crashed into me, hugging my waist tightly with one arm.

  Mother opened Luna’s fresh grimoire to a blank page, linking it up properly to the camera, before setting it aside.

  “Come on, Estelle!” Luna shook me, “Eyes on the camera! You have to smile and be still!”

  I smiled wryly.

  “Luna, I think you have to be still first, you know?”

  “Alright, girls, settle down. Got this thing ready to go. Going off in ten, nine…”

  “Mother, come on! Get into the picture with us as well!”

  “Haha, yeah, sure thing kiddo.”

  Mother quickly hopped around the camera, standing behind the two us, loosely dangling her wrists on our shoulders.

  “Kids, smile for the camera. You have three, two, one…”

  The camera flashed.

  And like that, on an otherwise unimportant (?) night, Luna’s yet-to-be-named grimoire recorded the first of its precious memories.

  Three women huddled together.

  A sloppily-dressed woman hung over her daughters with a light, tired slouch and sharp yellow eyes, doing her best to fight the oncoming tiredness, evident by the bags under her eyes.

  A soft, gentle young woman with golden hair haplessly smiled for the photo, pulled along by her sister’s enthusiasm. Her strange lavender eye held an almost-otherworldly gleam to them, seeming to contain wisdom and maturity beyond her age, with the other eye, the right one, being invisible to the viewer, covered by the wide brim of a witch’s hat.

  A teenage girl with sandy blonde hair melted into her sister’s embrace with a wide cheesy grin, holding up her other hand with her fingers in a small V gesture.

  A simple, homely memory, unrelated to any grand spells, rituals or incantations.

  Just a photo of a young girl standing next to her family.

  ITEM OBTAINED

  ????

  A mysterious runed necklace given to Luna on her 15th birthday. It seems to have an incomprehensible ritual inscribed onto it. Luna has never managed to figure out its true purpose though, as analysing it further required deconstructing it, and she fears breaking that final memento left behind to her by her beloved family.

  Can be used to ????

  Oh hey, look, one of these in-game interludes but actually from Estelle’s perspective this time.

  Should be back to regular updates soon-ish?