After watching the sunrise they headed back to the inn. The far away bell sounded six times, by the time they finally arrived.
As they stepped inside the kitchen Suze was already there, preparing breakfast. She looked very tired, and probably haven't slept much during the night.
Her face was a bit grim and sad, but seeing Veronica walk in she instantly brightened.
Carefully she walked towards Veronica and stopped in front of her. For a moment they just stood there neither knowing what to do next.
Seeing them standing there awkwardly, some realization set in Michael. Veronica acted way too similarly to Suze, like they had been living together for years, instead of a month.
He watched curiously as neither said or did anything, but after one minute of pure silence, his patience has ran out.
"Suze, I wanted to be the first to apologize for last night... It wasn't my intention to talk down on you, or your methods, I just wanted the same thing as you, keeping Veronica safe by preparing her to this world!" They stared at each other for a moment before Suze sighed.
"No... As I said yesterday you were right, I just didn't want to hear it... I can be really petty sometimes, especially when it comes to critics. I hope you can forgive me for insulting both of you..." There was actual shame on her face, which was a rare sight even for Veronica.
She gently wrapped Suze in a tight hug, then whispered in her ear... "There is nothing to forgive, but do make sure to insult Michael less... He makes good money and has a stable job, which can't be said about most men nowadays!"
Suze giggled a bit, then said in an equally quiet whisper... "Oh, I'm sure there is something else too, or are you just going to ignore the fact that he is handsome and is very muscular?"
The both giggled as Michael stared at them with a blank expression... "You know I can hear you, right? I have ascended hearing, as you both know!"
This only caused their laughter to burst out, which in turn caused Michael to start laughing as well.
"Veronica, would you like to spend some time learning, its Sunday after all. We will have plenty of free time to talk about the most important parts of the mysticism book!" Asked Suze after their laughter died down.
"I would love to, but we still have to go to the shooting range for the course, and I also have to visit Father Martin, since we still hadn't had time to talk about the book we both read!"
She wasn't lying by saying this, but she also didn't tell the whole truth. The real reason she didn't want to do the studying now is because she was really tired. Staying up the whole night, while recounting her whole lives' history wasn't easy.
The real reason she wanted to visit Father Martin was to sleep at his place, and to talk about the book... But more importantly to nap!
Michael suddenly coughed a bit forcefully pulling both women's attention to himself.
"Actually I can just write in the visit to the shooting range without either of us showing up..." Before he could've continued Veronica cut in with an exclaim.
"Really?! Why haven't you told me? Could you just write me in for every day, and we wouldn't need to bother with it anymore?" She asked in amazement and excitement.
"Kind of yes, and I can also decrease the two weeks to just one... I forgot to mention it, sorry!"
Veronica became silent for a few moments, before turning back to Suze and saying... "Well, it seems like my morning suddenly opened, so I guess we can study."
She tried really hard to sound enthusiastic, but neither Suze or Michael believed her. They looked at each other with understanding, then back at Veronica.
"You should probably take a nap first... If Suze begins teaching you and you don't pay attention, then the knowledge becomes worthless!" Said Michael, and next to him Suze nodded along.
"Exactly. As you already know I'm lazy, and don't want to repeat myself, so take a few hours, then come back and we can begin." Said Suze and this time Michael was the one who nodded.
Veronica looked between the two, then with an exhausted sigh and a yawn she went towards her small room.
When she was outside the kitchen, she began mumbling to herself... "When did these two become so good at communicating?"
...
The nap Veronica took wasn't long, and by the time the morning rush ended she was awake.
In the kitchen Suze sat at the table, since no customer asked for any food right now. She was reading the mysticism book, the exact same that Veronica was carrying under her arm.
Michael was nowhere to be seen, which meant he was probably at his home, sleeping.
"I thought you only had one of these." She said while showing the book. Suze looked up a bit startled, she was in deep concentration it seemed.
"I actually had only one, but one of our friends from downstairs was kind enough to lend me his." Suze said, while Veronica pulled out a chair and sat down next to her.
She placed down the book and opened it on the table of contents. There were lots of chapters she had no idea about, but there was only one that really stood out right now.
As she was about to open the book at the Mind's Eye section, Suze began to talk...
"So, I have been thinking where should we begin, but I don't know how much were you reading on your own." Suze's attitude was serious ––as always–– but also a bit more kind and excited, she seemed to like the idea of teaching, which begged the question... Why has she stopped helping Veronica?
The question was very easy to answer. She was lazy of course, but she was also a bit insecure when it came to teaching, like she was afraid to say something wrong, which in turn would lead to Veronica's death.
With this in mind Veronica answered the question by pointing at the table of contents.
"I read the ones that were about the fifteen paths and the one about the organizations, but that's all. Michael also talked to me about the Mind's Eye quite a bit... What do you think, where should we begin?" Asked Veronica while eying the rest of the contents inside the book.
There was a long section about Rituals, then there was one about Monsters and Ingredients, then a short one about Ethereal Items and such. The last one was called Others, and after a quick look Veronica determined, that it contained every topic, which couldn't make its own chapter.
It talked about Ascended Bullets, Potions, Ethereal Materials, and a dozen other mostly useless information about everything related to the supernatural.
But non of these were the topics they would talk about today. Instead Suze opened her book on a specific page, right near the middle. Veronica did the same and she became very surprised.
The first page didn't contain anything other than the title and a large picture, or drawing, or something like that.
It depicted an empty plain full of colors, no... The plain was made out of colors.
The picture was mostly empty except for the colors, but upon closer inspection Veronica spotted a few discrepancies.
Some colors looked like objects, and further away she even saw some humanoid form and something that seemed like a ruin.
The form was green in color and it looked like some kind of a plant was growing out of their skin.
The ruin was of similar color, with a few splotches of metallic gray and light blue. The whole picture looked surreal.
A shiver went down Sera's spine and she quickly turned her vision to the other page, which was filled with actual writing. On the top of the page the title read... 'Ethereal Plain'.
"Since you two had already talked about the Mind's Eye extensively, he probably already mentioned the Ethereal Plain, but I highly doubt he went into an in depth explanation." Said Suze, while staring at the same picture in the book.
"No, he hasn't." Veronica said, then began reading the first few lines. It was more of the poetic bullshit as with the others, but this time even she couldn't make sense of it.
"Don't read that page, there isn't any useful information there, turn to the other side if you actually want to learn something, but first lets talk about this picture." She said while pointing exactly where the lonely ruin stood.
"This isn't really how the Ethereal Plain looks, its more of an artistic representation. In the past I heard many people's description, all of them were different. The one common denominator was its indescribable beauty..."
"...As you know the supernatural world is very interconnected with colors, nobody really knows why. The Ethereal Plain is like that too. As you can see on the picture each color represents something in the real world, the whole place is layered upon ours, and as we sit at this table there are colorful forms of us sitting in the Ethereal Plain."
Veronica's eyes widened a bit after hearing that. Michael had talked about this, but only on surface level. She didn't know that her projection always exists on the other side and not just when she uses Mind's Eye.
"But isn't that dangerous, can those projections be hurt or killed?" She asked, and Suze shook her head.
"Those are literally just projections, they can be watched using Mind's Eye, but can't be interacted with until the owner of the projection steps into the Ethereal Plain... Now that is very dangerous!"
"Step into the Ethereal Plain? How is that possible?" She asked curiously, and as an answer Suze pointed at the humanoid form in Veronica's book.
"See that? That is a person travelling in the Ethereal Plain. You can judge his path and even his order just by looking at it. He has a green aura around him, so he must be from the Cultivator path, those vines are another sign. Every ascended's projection is a bit different, and it can be observed with Mind's Eye easily..."
Before Suze could continue Veronica cut in.
"Can the aura and my projection be hidden?" Suze answered her question without missing a beat.
"Of course, anti-divination is the key!... You probably think that anti-divination only protects you from divination, but in reality it keeps your presence hidden and it even gives anti-tracking property to you..."
"...But even if someone learns your path, you will probably notice it. When a person looks at your projection in the Ethereal Plain it will feel like someone is staring right at you, and no matter how much you try, you will never find them."
What Suze described wasn't anything new. Veronica had already felt it multiple times, in either the inn's basement or upstairs near her room. It was very uncomfortable, but it was nice to finally know what that feeling was.
While she was thinking Suze continued on a different route...
"Now let's talk about the real dangers in the Ethereal Plain. It is full of monsters, ruins and all sorts of nastiness that would kill you on sight, not even mentioning the people roaming there. The whole place is a hunting ground, where everyone is a hunter and prey at the same time!"
"But why are people venturing in there if its so dangerous? And how do they do it?" Hearing her question Suze chuckled to herself.
"Why are they entering the Plain?... Because of greed, why else! All the higher level Ethereal Ingredients can only be acquired by killing specific monsters. Also, they use it as a mode of transport, since moving in the Ethereal Plain is much faster than through the real world..."
"...For example a journey that would take a week here, would only take a few hours in the Plain... And how do they venture in?" She asked rhetorically, then turned the page and pointed at another picture.
This one showed a generalized woman's face. She had both of her eyes closed, but in the middle of her forehead was a third eye, which was wide open. The writing below the picture read... 'Artistic representation of the Mind's Eye'.
"The book describes it more thoroughly, so definitely read it later... In its essence after you can safely use Mind's Eye, you get the ability to travel there. It's a bit complicated and dangerous, since you can easily lose yourself and get corrupted, but many people use it, so its probably not that hard."
They then talked a bit more about the Ethereal Plain, until eventually Veronica left to visit Father Martin.