Thankfully the rest of the evening went on without incident and a week later, Noble had all but forgotten the troublesome gleam in her mother's eye.
She stood in the ruins of Crestfall, deep in concentration with her latest experiment.
Though the city was slowly being rebuilt a little more each day, there was still three-quarters of what was left that was rubble.
Those scattered stones were the object of her test.
'Focus.'
Noble used her ascended strength to push on a large rock. From its size, it was likely the cornerstone of some manor, possibly even belonging to Brenna's family.
But the origin was not what had drawn Noble to the stone that was taller than her and four times as wide. It was the size.
Could she move it?
The stone slid slightly under her strength. If she circulated her essence, then it would have done more, but that was not the purpose of her action.
Noble needed a baseline.
'Alright, I get the idea.' The professor dropped her arms to her side.
Taking a deep breath, Noble let her eyes swirl as she felt the intangible essence move through her.
She concentrated on the stone, careful to memorize every corner and crevice that she could see both with her eyes and her second sight.
'Let's see…'
Narrowing her gaze, Noble focused on one corner of the stone and used her [Light as a Feather] Ability.
The professor pushed on the stone again. It was lighter and felt oddly weighted against her hands.
'Cool, but also not exactly what I hoped for…'
As she suspected, her essence was being expended on the entire object even though she was only manipulating part of it.
Noble had noticed the same problem when she had weighted her blanket at home but hoped it had been a fluke.
It was not.
Noble leaned into her ability and let her power alter the weight of the whole stone.
Since she could not wrap her arms around the massive block, the professor tucked her fingers under it instead. It rolled like a colossal die to the next side with almost no effort.
Releasing her magical hold on the rock, Noble held her head.
'That took quite a lot of essence. I think I finally found my limit.'
Noble had been trying for a while to figure out the parameters of her new ability. She had already discovered, for instance, that she could not make the roof of her house lighter. Her Ability attempted to take hold of the entire house, which then pulled on her essence so quickly and drastically that the professor immediately abandoned that trial.
From that, Noble had learned that she would never be able to make the roof fall on someone's head or drop the floor out from beneath them by changing the weight. The effort to do so was beyond her current skill.
So Noble had taken the opposite approach and moved to smaller objects before working her way up. At last, she felt like she had a good grasp of what [Light as a Feather] could do.
Another thing she had learned quite by accident was that the Ability did not work on living beings, or at least not humans.
When a colleague had denied her request to collaborate on a project that she found of utmost importance, Noble had mentally thought that the woman's heart was made of stone.
Her Ability had activated momentarily only to come up short. The faculty member had walked away unscathed.
That was a little bit of a relief.
Imagine if she had made the lady's heart the weight of a stone! Would it have stopped beating and crushed the organs around it?
Possibly. Thankfully she would never find out. Her Ability had spared her that horror.
'Quite a tricky little thing,' Noble mused.
The next step would be to see how the skill interacted with her levitation. What was the best combination for both effective attacks and essence preservation?
A thousand ideas popped into her head of things to try.
But they would have to wait until her core was full once more.
"Professor Noble?"
Noble had felt someone coming, but the use of her professional title in the Dream Realm caused her to pay more attention to the emotional signature heading her way.
Turning around, Noble spotted someone she hadn't seen since his return after the solstice two years prior. His fiery red mop of hair and winsome expression were unmistakable.
"Awakened Hamish!"
The young man had been one of Noble's more memorable students. When his name came up as a possible candidate for the Crestfall citadel, Noble had instantly approved.
"I thought that was you!" Hamish's smile grew. "Someone said they saw you out here, and I had to see it for myself!"
"I was conducting an experiment, but I'm done now. Your timing is perfect. I was just about to head back." Noble crossed the ground and came up beside him.
The pair fell into an easy walk. "How long have you been stationed here? I haven't looked at the updates list for a while."
"Just a couple of days. Once the troops started being shipped home, Catphine and I decided to travel cross country in the Dream Realm while our bodies crossed the sea," Hamish explained.
"Cat is here?" Noble's eyebrows rose.
The semi-clairvoyant Awakened had been the one to give her the Portcullis Key in the first place. It had caused Noble a world full of frustration, but also likely saved her life when she crashed into the gate. The two ladies had remained in touch even after Catphine was no longer her student.
"Not at the moment. She headed back to the Waking World earlier today." Hamish winced. "It occurs to me that Cat wanted her appearance to be a surprise. When she found out I was on the list to come here, she decided to tag along. I know you have a strict policy on who can tether to the gateway, but she insisted you wouldn't mind."
"Indeed I do not." Noble paused. "As long as her Ability brought her here for something good and not because catastrophe is coming."
The young woman's Ability helped her find where things belonged, including people. Catphine had more than once been led into a sticky situation that only she could help with thanks to the pull of her Aspect.
"She didn't mention being drawn here, so I hope it is just because she wants to be here. But if it is because she is needed, then there is no one I'd rather have by my side. Well, her and Queen Bee, of course." Hamish smirked.
"Ah, you heard about that all the way in Antarctica, did you? I had hoped the news wouldn't get that far." Noble blushed slightly.
"I can't believe I was taught by Queen Bee. Well, I mean I can because you are an amazing professor. In fact, I don't know how I didn't see it myself!" Hamish rubbed the back of his neck.
"I'm sure you would have seen it with more time," Noble offered, "anyway, I did a decent job of staying hidden for as long as I did."
"Do you wish you had remained hidden?" The young man asked, and Noble could sense there was more than curiosity behind his words.
"I have found that most hidden things come to light sooner or later. So it is better to prepare for when, not if, that will happen."
"I see," Hamish had clearly hoped for another answer.
If Noble had known what she was going to see next, she might have hoped for a different answer as well.