By the time I was done inspecting the surrounding area with the Oculus, night had fallen. It was fascinating how much the environment around here had changed, not just with the season, but in some parts more than I would have deemed possible. It was expected that trees would grow a bit and that a few would get knocked over by the wind. Things like that happened every day. Just as changes wrought by sapient, mostly human, hands were expected. Some additional fields had been cleared and planted, adding to local food production, along with numerous new buildings replacing the rough shelters people had set up after the change. That was expected, especially after people had begun consciously embracing the system and the superhuman abilities it brought.

Manual labour became comparatively easy when the attributes of the worker were beyond those a normal human could ever hope to achieve. However, it took a bit of mental effort to start using those new abilities. Not because they needed some sort of mental trigger, but because the mind in charge of the body had to forget the limitations it had been conditioned to work under. That process took time and effort, as well as that initial impetus to start trying.

Who would try to casually lift a tree to drag it through the forest without the benefit of a draft-horse? To most people, the idea would feel ludicrous, making it nearly impossible to succeed. However, once a person had a strength between eighteen and twenty, in addition to a similarly high endurance, they'd be able to do just that.

But human, or otherwise sapient, hands could only account for so many of the changes I could see. Mainly those I would expect people to put effort into, like the aforementioned fields. But the other changes I could see?

Those were not the product of a human hand, not unless somebody with a power level similar to mine had decided to remodel the local geography wholesale. Entire mountain ridges had subtly changed their form, and I would have sworn that some of the peaks further away from town had grown compared to those closer, as if millennia of continental drift had decided to happen within a single year.

It was utterly ludicrous, even in the context of the change, but it was the best explanation I could come up with that didn't discard the changed, and apparently heightened, mountains. Sure, the easiest explanation was that my observations were due to some sort of optical illusion, some kind of forced perspective, or maybe some oddity within the Oculus I was using. Simple, straightforward, with the only problem being that it essentially meant to ignore observed reality. It was another thing on my growing list to explore, right below these newly arrived, apparently Sunna-worshipping, locals.

"Hey, Mom," Luna greeted me after I returned to the living area of the tower, one of our numerous books in hand. She had turned into quite the bookworm, though that was likely due to the extremely limited entertainment options we had available. If she didn't want to read, the only thing to do within this tower was magical experimentation, prayer or something similarly cerebral. Essentially, nothing but work.

The books, on the other hand, ranged from treaties about advanced mathematics we had decided to store, just in case, to the simplest, and most basic, picture books written for toddlers, with pretty much everything in between. Right now, Luna was much closer to the latter than the former, reading some fairly mindless teen novel from what I could tell. A science-fiction novel, to be precise. Amusingly, she had developed something of an aversion to all sorts of fantasy, with a few types having earned her absolute condemnation to the point that she was willing to burn the books.

"Luna," I nodded, "How are the sparkly space-vampires?" I asked, a grin on my face, only for her to growl softly and complain that the book was most certainly not about sparkling vampires, whether they were in space or not. It was a familiar exchange, as I had made the joke before and would continue making it until she finished reading this particular series or stopped reacting to the joke, whichever came first.

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"Where's Lia?" I then asked, noticing the absence of my other daughter.

"She went out to scout, as you've asked her. She just waited until the Sun set so that she wouldn't get all snow-blinded out there," Luna replied, and now it was my turn to nod, feeling guilty that I had originally told Lia to go out there without checking for the sun. In my defence, the Nexus Tower was covered in a persistent layer of clouds, blocking what little sun the area around it got from reaching the ground and irritating either of us. Here, we were a lot further south, meaning the days were a lot longer compared to the far north we had been, where daylight had become quite sparse as winter rolled across the land.

"If you notice that she's got trouble, please tell me. Not if she tells you something in confidence, just, please, keep an eye out," I asked Luna, getting a serious nod in response.

"You're worried about the state she was in when she was here last, right?" Luna asked, getting the point of my request immediately.

"Indeed," I replied, sitting down across from Luna, making myself comfortable, "She wasn't in a good state, mentally, and I'm afraid that the state has left scars on her. Scars that might have ripped open again, now that we're here. If they have, I want to help her get past those scars so that the wounds can heal," I explained, letting out a sigh.

"I honestly don't know if coming here was the right thing to do or not. I'm flying blind here, a sensation I don't particularly enjoy, you know?" I paused again, closing my eyes for a few moments to gather my thoughts, "Always keep in mind, I want what's best for both of you, I just don't always know what that 'best' is, or how to accomplish it," I admitted.

"So, no great Mom-Powers, oh Divine Mother?" Luna asked, her voice tinged with amusement and snark.

"No more than your own powers of divinely good behaviour, oh Maiden mine," I snarked back, winking to make sure that she knew I was merely joking.

"Oh my, then you obviously must have the greatest powers of all the Mothers out there, for my behaviour can only be described as divine, can it not? I mean, the Maiden is supposed to be fearless, curious and always willing to grow and push boundaries, is she not?" she continued the game, the grin on her face stretching just a little further now.

"And you are happily pushing boundaries and buttons, aren't you?" I laughed, only to shake my head and get a little more serious.

"Something you and Lia need to know," I told her, my voice now serious. Then, I waited for a bit, so the mirth still present on her face could leave, and she paid me the full attention this topic needed.

"When I used the Oculus to observe the local area, I saw a community dedicated to Sunna. Knowing my history with the deity, I do not doubt that these people will find fault with us. They might even attack outright, depending on circumstances. We will have to be a little careful, their setup looks quite expansive, at least from afar," I admitted, relieved that Luna seemed to take my warning as serious as it warranted.

"That could be problematic," she nodded, "Sun Worshippers, and didn't you say that the Curse you are afflicted by, and that Carnelia inherited from you, comes from Sunna?"

"Exactly my worries, yes," I agreed, uncertain if these people would be able to sense the curse's presence. Lorgar, the centaur I had met a while back, had immediately been hostile, to an irrational degree, but I wasn't sure if that was an individual quirk or some divine influence on him.

"At night, Lia will be able to take care of herself. We just have to be careful during the day," Luna shrugged. "We'll just have to see. And you might want to talk to Maggie, she seemed to have a fairly good idea of what was going on around here."

"Yes, that sounds like a good idea. I'll probably do that tonight, or maybe tomorrow. I should be able to get to their village easily, especially if I'm willing to fly or step through the shadows," I paused for a moment, "Will you be alright staying here for a bit? Holding down the tower and all that?"

"The tower stood easily for months while we were gone. I've no doubt it's going to remain standing here for a few more hours. Or maybe even for a million more, who knows?" she replied, the earlier snark making a return.

"Probably, yes," I nodded, "But the tower is secondary. If it falls over, I don't care, as long as Lia and you aren't inside of it when it does."

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